That warm feeling when you do something you love and know it’s good, that’s the fire starting. Feeling good not only impacts you physically and mentally, but starts a fire within your soul. Confidence is one of the key ingredients to feeling good. Here are some different ways to find your confidence and ignite that fire inside of you.
FIRST, YOU'VE GOT TO LOVE YOURSELF. If you don't love yourself, how are you supposed to love others? You need to own your own life and recognize your love for yourself before anything else. YOU are important. YOU deserve a happy, healthy, lovable life. YOU are in charge of your own body and how you treat yourself will help you set boundaries with others. Love yourself, your life and your body, and your confidence will come naturally to you.
SECOND, TRUST YOURSELF. Have you ever been in a sticky situation where your gut just knew something was wrong? What did it say? Did you listen? Don't ever doubt your gut! In the situation where someone is telling you to do something that your body is saying no to, listen to yourself and it will benefit you in the end. Trust and believe in yourself!
THIRD, FRIENDS. Having good friends is essential. Your friends are the family you get to choose. Quality over quantity is important. Quality friends listen to you, laugh with you, pick you up when you are down, and most of all respect you and your choices. Don't spend time with people who put you in an uncomfortable situation, try to make you do something that goes against your values or makes you feel unsafe, or would put you down for saying no. Seek out people who would support a positive decision, try to talk you out of making a bad decision, or find help for you if you are in trouble. Good friends should never bring you down.
Take a look at your posture! Mom was right, slumping your shoulders is not healthy! Research shows that having good posture can boost your confidence and mood. Standing in a "power pose," for just 2 minutes every day, really does help change your perspective. So next time you catch yourself slumping, open your chest and keep your head straight!
Cranking up your favorite songs can help boost your morale and definitely give you that power! Be aware of what music you choose when you may be in different moods. It can both pump you up or bring you down. Either option can be helpful to move through your emotions but knowing which way you are moving is essential.
"I've failed over and over again in my life. That is why I succeed"
–Michael Jordan
One extremely important way to boost you up is being okay with making mistakes. Realizing those mistakes are opportunities to learn makes you a better, more confident person.
"Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm"
- Winston Churchill
Motivation can be tricky when you have not reached your desired outcome. Finding new forms of enthusiasm
So once you've made that mistake, dust yourself off and get back in the game, learn and forge ahead. The five greatest gifts of failure and mistakes are:
- Clarity: Failures make us release all the distractions and focus on what's most important.
- Champions: Identifying your real friends, those who stuck with you even when it was tough.
- Creativity: Finding new ways to find the right way to do it, opening new doors and resources to implement that vision.
- Grit: Grit is coming back and fixing your mistake by trying another method. It strengthens your character.
- Freedom: If you own your failure you are liberated. Go about your business without that constant pressure to appear perfect because no one is perfect.
Having a laugh or breaking a smile can warm up a room and make you feel confident. And better yet, your brain will release those happy chemicals just from smiling because it thinks you are happy.
Saying positive things to yourself in the mirror helps bring your confidence level up! Here are a few to try:
- I am strong. I am beautiful. I am enough.
- Happiness is beautiful.
- I make a difference to this world!
- I am loved and important.
- I am capable and can do hard things.
The small successes lead to the biggest outcomes, so celebrate each step!
Confidently being yourself is contagious. Your strength will rub off onto someone else and create a chain reaction. A crowd will grow and stand along with you; it’s the power of one! Rise Above the pressure of being someone else, and just do you! Love yourself! Smile on, my beautiful people!
What other strategies do you use to lift yourself up?
1 https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/research-reports/mdma-ecstasy-abuse/brief-history-mdma
2 https://www.bu.edu/police/2013/08/30/drug-facts-on-molly-and-ecstasy/
3 http://www.cesar.umd.edu/cesar/drugs/ecstasy.asp
4 http://www.drugs.health.gov.au/internet/drugs/publishing.nsf/content/ecstasy2
5 http://www.drugfacts.ca/ecstasy-definition-short-long-term-effects-risk-addiction/
6 http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/appsych/chibps/ecstasy
7 http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/research-reports/mdma-ecstasy-abuse/what-does-mdma-do-to-brain
8 https://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/schedules/
9 http://codes.findlaw.com/co/title-18-criminal-code/co-rev-st-sect-18-18-403-5.html
10 http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/drugs-inc/articles/drugs-inc-facts-ecstasy/
