Self-Confidence

No matter who you are, your life has had moments where you lack self-confidence. Your self-confidence may have been a conscious awareness or it may have been below the level of your consciousness and so, unconscious. Regardless, your behaviors and actions have been driven by your self-confidence or your lack of self-confidence. To compensate for a lack of self-confidence, you may slipped into the shadows or you may have gone to the opposite extreme and demanded attention. Yes, insecure people will over-compensate and demand attention. Drawing the spotlight to you can be an advantage or it may explode in your face…

Your self-awareness can be critical. Knowing, processing, and understanding your self-confidence and how it may affect the way you behave has value. This can be an important challenge and lesson to learn from in this human life. It can add to the “drama” for you and all the people with whom you interact. This can be a major factor for your spiritual development as you follow your pathway through this life. Some of us want to lead and jump into the spotlight. This can be done when driven by self-confidence or it can be done when a victim to insecurity and the lack of self-confidence. No matter what your situation, you are here to serve. Your service may derive from self-confidence or your lack of self-confidence. (The secret challenge may lie in not demanding attention by causing major conflicts in our world, unless you serve as an instrument for people learning through the upheavals your insecurity creates… Histories greatest villains were driven by insecurities and may have served the purpose of creating major drama for others to learn from…)

You may also draw attention to yourself when you shrink back into the shadows when you want to withdraw from the spotlight… And, some very self-confident people will know when to not thrust themselves forward, so allowing for others to step up… This can be the sign of strength and self-confidence. You are important AND your “Story” is important. You can add to the perspective and offer possibilities of what “to do” or what “not to do” to your audience and so become a teacher and leader. Your life experience has value even when, perhaps especially when, you have NOT succeeded. Sharing your difficult lessons from life challenges can be a life saver for some people in your audience.

Knowing what has happened in your life to create your self-confidence or your lack of self-confidence is important in many situations but not critical for you to move forward. Looking to move past your “insecurities” or your lack of self-confidence can be a challenge and a turning point for you and your development. So, at some point, you need to push through and take a step forward which can inspire a diminishment of any lack of self-confidence.

My own insecurity and lack of self-confidence has pushed me to learn and to grow. I have managed to produce experiences which benefited me and the people around me when I have worked to overcome a personal shortcoming. This has made my life more interesting, for me, and has offered more wisdom and stories to tell… Consider, when possible, to push through your seeming lack of confidence and have a new story to tell on the other side…
YOU are Loved!

Step up and lead in service. And, envy not a leader whom demands your attention for they may be driven by their insecure feelings and a lack of self-confidence…

PS. You and your soul are perfect. Your mind and ego can make you think less of yourself. This self-criticism is part of your human drama and not your Divine soul’s true nature. When you step into higher consciousnesses you can accept your human flaws and strengths and feel equanimity with your own attacks by your ego or by other people’s human egos. (“Sticks and stones can break your bones but words can never harm you…” is an old silly human saying. (If you let words and other people’s judgement affect you, you still have some important stuff to learn…)

Self-Acceptance

Self-Confidence & Self-Acceptance

Many of us struggle with confidence and self-acceptance. This may be born from our early learnings in this life or possibly as an inherited trait from our family. Our culture tends to control our behaviors as we grow by magnifying our “flaws” which are judged by our supervising adults and competitive, and insecure, peers. We begin to strive to “fit in” even if this is the antithesis of our individual natures. We can lose ourselves. We can begin to advance our feelings of inadequacy or insecurity. We often feel that we do not fit in and so reduce our levels of self-acceptance.

What we may have to learn or remember is that we are perfect even with our imperfections. Re-learning to love ourselves and to accept ourselves even with our flaws is one of the great learnings of our lives. We have to love ourselves and accept ourselves if we wish to make the changes that we may feel would be appropriate. (If we want to improve our “flaws” we must first embrace these and then experiment with alternative behaviors to change these parts of our human incarnation.) To learn our lessons in this life, we are tested or challenged by our weaknesses or imperfections and we then have the free choice to choose to do things (our lives) differently. We test out new or “better” behaviors. Dealing with our insecurities is one of the lessons that we have.

As a general perspective, if we can’t love ourselves it is very difficult for us to love others and to be most fully present in our lives and to live in service. It seems that one of our goals is to live the dramas and have the struggles of our body’s imperfections in our own mortal lives. We learn our lessons through this struggle as we move through these dramas and hopefully find that Joy is the great beauty in our struggles with our imperfections. (Yes, maybe even learn to laugh at ourselves and our foibles.)

As we said in the most recent blog, we’ve created mountains between us and other people. We have also created a mountain between ourselves and the acceptance and self-love of ourselves. Do you realize that you are a miracle and that you as a soul are a unique fingerprint? You are unique like a snowflake. You are a perfect and necessary part of the Divine and the Universe cannot exist without the wisdom and energy of your soul and spirit. It is with your uniqueness, as a miracle, that you must find the acceptance and then the self-love of who you are, where you’re going, and your purpose. You are a blessing.

Other people may judge you as less than who you really are. That is their drama. That is their lesson and you have to respond to that by knowing that you are much more perfect than they might know or imagine. Other people’s judgment and expectations are not under your control. You can not argue with them. This is a test for you to hold true to who you are and know the strength of your self-love and acceptance. Be the role model of self-knowledge and self-acceptance. Show your confidence and strength in your strong posture of self-acceptance!

Your self-confidence and self-acceptance are born out of self-knowledge. Know your strengths and weaknesses and accept both. Do not use personal flaws as an excuse. Find a way to accept and change any identified flaws if you feel this is a necessary goal in this life.

You are a Miracle! Thank you for being you.

Thanks for your time and consideration. Your insights and experiences are unique and a blessing, so please share these…

If you are READY and looking for a supportive community where you can share your story, your wisdom, and grow spiritually in a non-religious environment, consider Masters of the Journey.
You are a Blessing! You are a Master! Your wisdom from your life experience can have great value to other pilgrims on the path toward awakening and enlightenment.

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Keys to Developing Self-confidence

Self-confidence is related to feelings of self-worth and self-regard. It suggests that a person has confidence in their abilities and how they present themselves to the world and that these abilities are born out of oneself. People who project self-confidence often find it easier to attract success and to gain support for their endeavors. If you have it, you use it. If you do not have “it,” you may desire it.

The keys to developing self-confidence can come from the inside through self-awareness and self-acceptance or you can learn to project it outwardly and do so until it soaks in to your emotional fiber.

One of the accepted self-confidence practices is the “fake it until you make it” behavior. This behavioral technique asks that you project yourself as a self-confident person would and as your external self demonstrates this attitude, your internal self will begin to adopt this external portrayal. To do this, consider dressing well and enhance your appearance as best you can. Many people require coaching advice on how to do this because it does not always come naturally, and can be done incorrectly. This does not have to be financially expensive but does require some coordinated efforts. Project yourself as confident by having good posture, standing up as straight and as tall as you can. Smile warmly and easily. Give sincere compliments and look for the “GOOD” in other people to build them up and do not dwell in the negative. Avoid gossip and negativity. Walk faster and with intention. Make eye contact. Speak up, do not mumble. You do not have to speak fast or talk just for the sake of talking. (Unnecessary talking can sound desperate.) Learn to really listen and respectfully reflect back the understanding, or lack of understanding, that you may have of your communication partner. (Let them finish. Be patient.) Use a firm handshake when you greet people. Demonstrate your positive excitement about learning new things and about life in general. Look for what is good and do not dwell, too much, on what is missing.

Internal self-confidence takes more effort and time. Your motivation to be self-confident will be tested. But a deep core of self-confidence can last a lifetime. To accomplish the ability to dwell in internal self-confidence begins with a demonstration of self-love and self-care. To do this you must put time and effort into taking good care of yourself. You will benefit from regular exercise and stress management. In fact, it is difficult to hold on to your self-confidence without regular demonstrations of self-care. Deep relaxation can also lead to a type of self-control that allows you to control your fears, anxiety, anger, and sadness. You can minimize the fears and maximize your solid emotional foundation through regular stress management practices. Even when you become self-aware of a possible weakness or flaw in yourself, you will better able accept these as lessons rather than be a victim to any of your imperfections. We ALL HAVE IMPERFECTIONS and we must learn and adapt new ways of “being” to help us move past any of these discovered flaws. This is sometimes easier said than done and counseling or coaching may help expedite your process of moving through the insight of any imperfections. “We are perfect because of our imperfections.”

Focus on your strengths, your gifts, your creativity, and your positive contributions. By dwelling on these, you allow the positive light of self-confidence to begin to burn more brightly from your inside, out. And, though difficult, learn to accept and appreciate any sincere compliments that come your way. Build, brick by brick, the feelings of self-worth and self-regard that come from demonstrations of your positive contributions to your family, friends, work, and to the world. Give gifts of yourself freely and without expectations but maintain healthy boundaries (do not emotionally bankrupt yourself.) Find “positive” people to support you. Negative or desperately needy people will drain you if you do set limits, and honor these limits.

Finally, demonstrate gratitude. Self-confident who are healthy will understand that this is a blessing and will find ways to show how grateful they are for feeling their self-confidence.

For coaching support, consider the Stress Education Center at www.dstress.com and please take GOOD care of yourself.

Beauty from the Inside Out

Why do people strive to be “Beautiful?” Everyone has a different definition of what beauty is but the main goal of beauty, or working to be beautiful, is to be attractive to a targeted group of people. Attractiveness can take many forms and an understanding of the desires of the target group can assist you in becoming the most attractive and beautiful person you can be.

In Western culture, beauty can be based on desirable physical attributes. Since primitive humans emerged from the other early species, attractiveness was based on physical attributes that could help ensure the survival of the family. Being strong, a good worker, or a good hunter/gatherer were desirable characteristics and attractive in helping to find the best “mates.” These positive characteristics could be passed along to the next generation with the greater possibility of family survival. In the recent past, physical attributes like height, strength, speed, body types, and financial stability (wealth) have become features to identify for attractiveness. Fashion trends often help people to accentuate their best attributes. Make-up and hair styling has added to the ways in which people will present themselves to be most attractive, to their targeted group.

People engage in body altering behaviors to create increased levels of attractiveness. Weight-loss programs, fitness programs, body art, and cosmetic surgical procedures have become fashionable in attempts to alter natural appearance and become more desirable. In the primitive, “survival of the fittest” mentality, people chase their dream of being someone they were not born to be and often find it leads to a lack of self-esteem and lowered feeling of self-worth.

Beauty often comes from feelings of self-confidence. Some of the most “attractive” people you encounter will not meet the standards that are created by the media. Many very attractive people are not tall, blond, blue-eyed, physically well endowed, and sun tanned Gods or Goddesses. In fact, the most “movie ready” actors or models are often some of the most unsuccessful in finding real life happiness and life satisfaction. (Look at the tabloids who ridicule celebrities for every transgression that our celebrities are unlucky enough to find themselves within.) We often fantasize being like our celebrity idols until we see their lives fall apart due the strain of their celebrity and them getting hauled into court for their misbehaviors.

A more positive alternative for most people is to find a positive way to become attractive. To do this, we must look inside, find our very best attributes, enhance these, and then find ways to display these attributes in the very best ways possible. Attractiveness may be your intelligence, your compassion, your positive energy, your skill of empathy, your ability to communicate, your softness, or your sense of humor. (Though from personal experience, I found that my sense of humor was often used as a defense mechanism when I was feeling vulnerable.) The happiest and most successful people I know are the people who allow their beauty to come from the inside out. The most emotionally healthy people are, by their nature, some of the most attractive people I actually know. Fantasizing about beautiful people is OK but in the long run not as satisfying as having healthy attractive people in your life.

We often settle for something, or someone, less than healthy as we search for attractive partners. When we are young, physical attraction and seductive fashions seem to be desirable traps that we must negotiate. It might be better to understand your deepest needs and requirements in a partner than to “settle” for the first person who gives you a positive response or the first person who meets your physical gratifications.

Beautiful people have to work to maintain their health and self-esteem. They will make time and put their resources into self-care by exercising, eating correctly, getting sleep, and practicing regular stress management. They will often create balance in their lives by including expressions of their creativity, having time for positive, nurturing relationships, and spending time in honoring their spiritual pursuits.

People who have addictions and need to block their own relationships with their own history or past traumas, are often struggling to find the beauty within. The addictions can include: alcohol, drugs, medications, food, sex, smoking, spending/hoarding, gambling, and adrenaline sports or activities. These addictions block the pain or anxiety but do not allow for the inner beauty and self-confidence to shine.

A secret to finding your beauty often involves breaking free from a cultural picture of success and beauty. Find your own definition of a healthy compatible partner. Find your own inner strengths and beauties and demonstrate these. Master self-awareness and self-care. Self-awareness entails knowing and understanding both your strengths and your flaws so well that you can accept any weaknesses as your lessons and then find new ways to live where you will not be a victim to any of these imperfections. Finding self-love and acceptance, which may require support and assistance, will be a useful process that can lead to your long term success and happiness. Getting trapped in other people’s expectations or their visions of beauty may lead down a path of unhappiness.

Please take good care of yourself. Thank you for your time and consideration.

If you require life coaching to assist you in developing your self-awareness and self-care, consider coaching from the Stress Education Center available at www.dstress.com