Connecting to confidence
How confident are you feeling today?
Are there times when confidence is a fleeting experience?
Ever wondered how you can cultivate more self-belief?
Self-confidence is an emotion that influences you on all levels because your emotions are a bridge between what you think in your head and how you physically feel in your body. How you think, the thoughts and beliefs you have, are experienced as sensations in your body, that’s why we call them ‘feelings’, and the way you feel is both mental and physical at the same time. It’s no wonder then that confidence is so interwoven with your wellbeing.
Confidence is a state of mind, and comes from the Latin word 'fidere' which means "to trust"; therefore, having self-confidence is having trust in your whole self.
Self-confidence isn’t all physical but it often starts off feeling this way because self-confidence is connected to how you feel or think you look, and confidence impacts how you move, behave and interact with other people. Comparison is one of the things that sap the life out of your self-confidence and whether you find yourself comparing yourself to others or to a different version of yourself from a different day it’s a shift from trust to self-doubt.
There are days when I feel stressed, or when something or someone has made me question myself and that’s when I sense my self-belief taking a dip. I am more aware nowadays of how self-confidence is connected to my anxiety and stress, and what I can do to support myself in those moments to connect back to a sense of self-belief.
Confidence isn’t skin-deep, it’s soul-deep and cultivating more of it is a practice of self-love.
Spending time focusing on your mindset each day will help you nurture a more confident frame of mind. Confidence is woven into your physical, emotional and mental wellbeing so if you bring your awareness to your breath by breathing consciously you’ll notice how you create physical space and expansion in your body and help to clear and focus your mind.
This is why breath-work and mindset practices go so beautifully together as they cultivate a sense of inner confidence.
Movement doesn’t need to be dynamic but movement is medicine. Movement helps shift stagnant energy and feelings of anxiety, stress and low self-esteem although how you choose to move your body is entirely down to you and different days may call for different moves!
Physical exercise impacts you emotionally and mentally too as you experience a release of endorphins which help to lift your mood, you pay more attention to how you breathe and you focus your mind rather than allow it to drift to thoughts that may not be supportive, and all this can leave you feeling more confident.
When I feel my confidence I move, meditate or breathe.
I run through the woods in the fresh air and feel into the strength of my body. Most days I roll out my yoga mat, put a playlist on and I tune in to my inner world eventually forgetting what I was feeling like before, just knowing I feel better. Yoga has a sly way of distracting you from your constant thinking and instead of guiding you to focus on how strong, grounded and calm you can be.
Self-confidence begins on the inside, under the layers, and to create more of it you need to give yourself the space to tune in to yourself and ask what you need.
Becki
P.S… If you want to practice yoga with confidence from the comfort of your home and are interested in joining the Big Love Yoga Community, you can book your TRIAL SESSION with us.
I look forward to welcoming you onto the mat!