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Mindfulness is the act of living in the moment and being aware of your surroundings and behaviour while focusing on the now and the present. It is a philosophy as well as a way of life that encourages active engagement and concentration on the present moment, taking each moment with complete command and control of your thoughts and actions.
The most basic aim of mindfulness is to bring positivity and accountability to our lives for a more immersive living experience and better control of our actions and circumstances. It is a means of making our lives healthier and more productive by actively working towards the state we want to achieve with complete dedication.
We can easily incorporate mindfulness into our busy routines and daily life by investing some time in mindfulness meditation. Mindfulness meditation is an excellent way to slowly train our mind and body for the most effective application of mindfulness over time.
I hope you find this post helpful and the benefits of Mindfulness have a positive impact on your life. This is the ultimate guide to practicing mindfulness for beginners.
To keep it simple, being mindful means remaining present. Despite the hectic nature of our modern-day world, practicing mindfulness encourages self-awareness, acceptance, and taking in the moment. It allows you to truly focus on what you’re doing right now.
Mindfulness stems from ancient Buddhist meditation teachings, but Jon Kabat-Zinn adapted the concept in 1979. Over the last few years, mindfulness has gained a lot of popularity. This may be due to more mainstream coverage, publications like Mindful, and the power of social media!
After doing some research, I also found that mindfulness is often used in therapy. This is because it’s thought to help with anxiety and stress!
Mindfulness has a lot of benefits for your overall well-being. It could easily be another blog post (maybe in future) – here are a few important points.
We have a lot of things to cross off our to-do list every day. It would be simple if we could finish one by one easily. But I find that whenever I am ready to do a task, I am reminded of something else that needs to be done. It makes me anxious because it is unfinished. Then I feel the stress rising. I am not able to concentrate on the current task. I feel overwhelmed. In such moments, I do a mindfulness meditation exercise. It calms my mind and helps me relax. I am able to concentrate on the task at hand better.
Mindfulness helps you increase focus and concentration because you are making an effort to bring your attention to the present moment repeatedly. It even has the power to change your brain. The effect of mindfulness practice can last long even w n you are not consciously doing it because new neuron connections are formed through neuroplasticity. It’s amazing, right?
When you practice mindfulness you are more aware of your thoughts. So, if any thought comes up that gives you stress you try to acknowledge it. You say to yourself “Ok. This is stressing me out. Back to the task”. So you get to respond to your negative thoughts rather than being controlled by it. You can choose to step back from them as you are mindful of your emotional state. You acknowledge your thoughts and you are able to respond rather than react to it.
Research has proved that our brain has the ability to influence the body’s inflammatory responses. Our brain and immune system are interconnected. Mindfulness can be used as a pathway to train our brain to control stress reaction and prevent a lot of stress based diseases. It also improves your memory retention, promotes heart health, improves the quality of sleep, etc.
But how do you become more mindful? How to incorporate mindfulness in daily life? Read on.
Over the years, many benefits of mindfulness have been scientifically proven. For example, being mindful improves your mood and enhances your creativity and it also helps to reduce stress and anxiety. It also makes you more focused as you train your brain to remove distractions and concentrate on one task.
But Mindfulness also helps you to slow down and stop rushing, to stop dwelling on the past but focusing on the present. You’ll notice that you’re enjoying the little moments and appreciating life more, because you’re actively concentrating on being in the moment.
Mindfulness isn’t always about meditation. It can be very easily incorporated with daily activities. However, practicing Mindfulness Meditation can certainly help in bringing the focus back to the present moment. Thus, making mindfulness, a part of the lifestyle.
So, what are Mindfulness techniques? Mindfulness techniques are any activity or practice that you perform in a mindful way. Now, you can perform everything in a mindful way. But there are some activities that are easier to be mindful in than others.
And it’s these mindful activities that I am going to share in this post. Now let’s jump into the details of the Mindfulness techniques that you can implement into your everyday life!
A couple of great channels from YouTube for mindfulness content, are as followed:
Mindfulness meditation is practiced by focusing the mind on the present and keeping your thoughts from wandering into the past and future. It focuses on breath awareness to draw attention to your body, open up your senses and anchor you into the present and your immediate surroundings.
There’s no need to wait until stress rises to use breathing methods for well-being. You experience balance and harmony when your breaths are of equal length and depth. As inhaling and exhaling uniformly are the natural response to inner peace, your brain thinks you are relaxed even when you breathe this way intentionally. Take deep, even breaths throughout the day to preserve well-being.
Our minds can run away with themselves. Reacting to these thoughts can cause anxiety and stress. We can feel guilty or ashamed of our thoughts. But what if we just allowed those thoughts to pass gently? Without judging them as they arise? Take a few minutes to focus on your thoughts. Notice them coming and going without judging and labelling.
If you do judge or react to any thoughts, acknowledge that, and then gently let the thought pass. Being mindful in this way helps you to develop an awareness and understanding of how your thoughts affect you, and how you can better control your thoughts every day.
So often we live in our heads and we completely forget about our body, unless of course, we are in distress. And here’s the problem: We think that our mind is completely separate from our physical body. But it’s not.
To become aware of your body, send your breath to different parts and acknowledge those body parts.
Becoming aware of your body will bring you into the present moment. It will fine-tune your senses and quiet the mind.
I also recommend the following books to read for Mindfulness, these books are amazing and I cannot recommend them enough.
Whenever you are meditating, it’s normal that thoughts will enter your mind and sometimes your mind may wander – that’s ok. But, whenever you notice a thought, not just in mediation, just observe it, acknowledge it, and then let it pass. And bring your attention back to your breath.
Move your focus inside your body and try to notice any emotions you can feel in your body. Maybe some anxiety in our chest, fear in your stomach or happiness in your heart. If you notice something, just observe the sensation. Is it heavy or light? What shape is it? Is it moving? Does it have a colour? Is it changing? Spend as long as you like just observing the feeling. And if you can’t notice anything, that’s okay as well. Don’t put pressure on yourself, just try it again next time.
Start by noticing the sensation of the air on your nostrils. Observe the temperature as it enters and leaves – does it change? Then move to your face, can you feel a breeze or any other sensations on your face? Now, try to feel your hair touching your head. And then focus on your shirt touching your shoulders, your bottom touching the seat and your hands touching your lap. And finally, focus on your feet and feel them connecting with the ground.
Focus all your attention on your hearing – what sounds can you notice? Start with the sounds close to you and work your way further out. When you notice these sounds, just observe them. Notice the way they appear and disappear into silence.
Take a few deep breaths and focus on your sense of smell. What smells can you notice in the air?
What tastes are in your mouth? Maybe you will notice saliva and need to take a swallow.
Slightly open your eyes so you are squinting and your vision is blurred. Don’t sharpen your focus on anything, just notice the different shapes and colours and how wide your field of vision is. Tune into your sense of vision for about 30 seconds. Then close your eyes again and bring your attention back to your breathing.
A great mindfulness activity for just before bed is progressive muscle relaxation. Progressive muscle relaxation involves taking a moment to check in with your body by paying attention to how it feels, one muscle group at a time. This involves lying down and then clenching or flexing your toes for ten seconds or so and then releasing. Focus on how the area feels and then move up to flex your ankle and your calves. This can be very relaxing but it can also help you to identify areas that might need a good stretch or a light massage.
Being in nature is one of the easiest ways for me to be mindful in everyday life. I regularly take my dog for a walk over the local lake. When I’m there, I take deep breaths, taking in the fresh air. I listen to the sounds, watch the birds, and I enjoy the smells. Depending on what weather it is, the lake always smells differently.
If you don’t have the luxury of local lake, try take a walking break during the day and go to a park or the woods/forest. Notice everything around you and enjoy. You’ll return to everyday life recharged and with a fresh mind.
Try dishwashing, cleaning and doing laundry a little bit slower than you usually do, focus your entire attention on what you’re doing and be aware of your body movements. Pay attention to when your mind wanders, go back to what you’re doing and become aware of your body movements. Repeat if necessary. Pay attention to possible after-effects.
Being mindful doesn’t require much effort. You can be mindful with every little task. Try to take a mindful shower. Feel the water touching your skin and notice the temperature of the water. Focus on smell of the soap, it will give a calming effect. Listen as the water hits your skin and falls on the floor. Touch your skin and notice what this is like for you.
Pay attention to your feelings. Do fresh? Be aware of your thoughts and feelings as you do this. This will also enhance the need to care for yourself, which is a very good practice for your personal wellbeing.
Choose something small, like a stone, a leaf or a flower. If you can hold it in your hands and take a good look at it and try to observe everything about it. Focus all of your attention on it. Notice the items appearance, what size is it? what shape is it? What colours can you see? Does the item have different textures? Do not assess the item or judge it just observe it for what it is.
I can’t tell you that your life will change instantly but I can tell you how my life has changed. Since I began practicing Mindfulness I have become so much more aware. I’m aware of other people’s feelings, I notice the beauty in life and because of this I can appreciate this life a lot more.
I don’t let the little things get to me so much, I can take a breath and realise that I don’t need to react to this situation. In reality my life hasn’t changed, the things that used to stress me out are still there for the main part.
It’s how I choose to respond to these stressors that is different. The change is within me, not life that happens around me. That’s the beauty of Mindfulness you don’t need to take on the world, just yourself.
I would recommend to anyone to give Mindfulness a try. Do you have any other Mindfulness activities you would like to share? I look forward to hearing them. If you have any questions please reach out to me via adam@adam-lawrence.org. I would love to hear from you!
Hello! My name is Adam and welcome to my space on the internet. Here you can find me writing about subjects such as spiritual growth, self-discovery, wellbeing, addiction recovery and mental health. Please connect with me on my journey and join the community!
Today I will be sharing with you everything you need to know about mindful walking meditation and the benefits of this practice. If the word meditation brings to mind an image of someone sitting in a perfect upright posture, cross-legged on the floor with eyes…
Today I will be talking about overcoming sleep anxiety. For some people, it happens like clockwork: Their anxiety is manageable during the day, but as soon as their head hits the pillow, every possible bad scenario plays out in their mind. Falling asleep is hard…
Today I will be sharing with you 10 natural grounding exercises for anxiety.
Grounding exercises are a way to stabilise strong emotions during stress, anxiety or trauma.
Grounding is achieved by redirecting your attention away from what is causing your stress back to something more pleasurable and relaxing.
There are infinite ways to practice grounding, but the general idea is to connect with the present moment by settling into your body through the five senses.
Throw yourself into one of these grounding exercises to manage stress and improve focus.
When your mind wanders back to worries or things that are outside of your control, gently ground yourself back in the present moment – even if you have to bring your attention back over and over again.
With high stress, try one exercise after another until you find the one or a combination that makes you feel calm, safe, and relaxed.
Today I will be talking you through 10 of my favourite grounding exercises.
Disclaimer: I am not in any way a certified therapist/councillor, therefore all the advice given is from my own experience and should not be taken as medical advice.
Anxiety is one of the most common mental health problems in the United Kingdom.
Even if you don’t meet the clinical criteria for an anxiety disorder, I’m sure you’ve experienced some of the hallmark symptoms from time to time:
Anxiety can also include panic attacks, specific fears, flashbacks, compulsions, or social anxiety.
Though grounding techniques for anxiety is an under-researched topic, there are emerging results that show positive effect.
Some of these health benefits include reduction of pain, depression, stress, and fatigue.
In my experiences with grounding, I’ve also found some added benefits.
For example, when I’m stressed while working, it’s not uncommon for me to utilise various grounding techniques to enhance my concentration.
Grounding is simple and free strategy to reduce anxiety that you can use anywhere.
Grounding distracts you from your worry and anxiety. It uses mindfulness principles to refocus your attention on concrete, observable things in the present.
As the name says, it grounds you in reality so that your mind isn’t stuck in the past or future.
There are very few “rules” to grounding. You can change the questions as they suit you and your environment.
The key is to just get you to tune into observing and using your senses.
Now let’s look at some different grounding techniques.
One of the most studied and preferred methods of distraction is known as the 5-4-3-2-1 grounding technique.
This method is simple and effective for helping you to regain control of your mind by grounding you into the present moment.
It works by incorporating all five of your senses to keep you in your present surroundings, which is incredibly effective for fighting anxiety.
The best part? It only takes one minute of your time!
Here’s how it works:
Take a deep breath and look around you to recognise five different things.
Say each thing out loud, such as, “I see a clock,” or “I see the leaves on the tree.”
Recognise four things you can feel the texture of. Say each thing out loud, such as, “I feel the carpet beneath my feet,” or “I feel the fabric of my shirt.”
Take a few seconds to actually touch each of these textures.
Listen for three separate and distinctive sounds around you.
Say each sound out loud, such as, “I hear the birds chirping,” or “I hear the clock ticking.”
Take a few seconds to really listen to each sound.
Breathe in and out a few times and name two distinct smells you encounter.
Say each smell out loud, such as, “I smell the scent of my perfume,” or “I smell the flowers blooming nearby. “If you can’t smell anything, remember the smell of your favourite scents and recall them out loud.
If you have food in front of you, take a bite and name the taste out loud.
If not, see if you can pick up on an aftertaste in your mouth.
Alternatively, you can recall the taste of a favourite food. Say it out loud.
Once you’re done with the last exercise here, breathe in deeply for five seconds, hold it for five seconds, and then breathe out for five seconds.
At the end of this exercise, you should be in the present moment.
You can also use the five senses method to further ground yourself and practice embodied living while walking or driving to your next destination.
This meditation in motion allows you to become more aware of nature and the overall environment that surrounds you.
Furthermore, it can help you recognise yourself as a unique part of that natural world.
If you would like to have some guidance during your mediation, try using Headspace’s walking meditation feature.
Whether you are walking in nature, at home, or in the city, guided meditations are also available to you on many other platforms such as YouTube and Spotify.
With or without guided meditations, here are a few things to keep in mind when entering into your meditative space:
You can ask yourself what it is you wish to gain or experience from this walk.
Or you can simply approach this walk with the intention of leaving more grounded and focused.
Does it feel light or heavy? Does each step feel automatic or require a lot of effort?
Bring attention to your posture and how your body glides or trots during your walk.
If you are sitting, be aware of your feet planted on the ground and the position of your body.
Are you standing tall? Are you slouching? Notice if your muscles feel tightened or loosened.
Where are you feeling tension?
This bodily awareness allows you to connect with your physical nature more mindfully.
Acknowledge any tall trees, bright flowers, or birds flying by. If you are driving, it could instead be the passing of cars or multi-sized buildings on your left and right.
Perhaps you hear the rustling of leaves, birds chirping, or your feet lightly tossing dirt as you walk.
While in the car, maybe you notice the sound of your blinker on, a car speeding up, or music flooding out from your radio.
Allow these sounds to be present with you in the moment until the moment passes.
Remember, these sounds and other sensory perceptions are not the main focus of your awareness and should instead be used as guideposts.
Maybe you feel your feet pressing against the earth or your hands tucked in the cosy pockets of your jacket?
It could be the feeling of the steering wheel in between your palms or the air-conditioning blowing in your direction.
What movements are you making? Are your arms swinging back and forth or your feet moving at a certain pace?
Allow yourself to continually notice the moment you are experiencing and allow it to pass into a new one.
Focus on your rhythm and on your natural movement as you continue on your path.
This rhythm is what will guide you.
Finally, if you feel yourself losing focus, bring your attention back to your steps or the movement of your feet once more.
When intense feeling of anxiety arises and you begin to feel overwhelmed, just STOP!
Do not react. Stop in your tracks.
Don’t do anything at all with your body or say anything with your speech.
Remove yourself from the situation you are in.
Walk away from the person, the event or the situation that you find yourself in.
Step away and take five deep and long belly breaths.
Observe, notice, pay attention and grow curious as to what is going on around you both on the outside and inside.
Notice with your five senses all the things that you can see, hear, smell, touch and taste.
And notice what thoughts are showing up in this moment and what is showing up in your physical body.
Perhaps you might notice shallow breathing, a tight chest, knots in your stomach, hands and jaw clenched.
After you have stopped, taken a step back and observed both inside and outside of your body, then you can proceed mindfully.
Act with awareness. Ask yourself “Even in this moment of anxiety, which action can I take that will help me move in the direction of ease and peace of mind”?
Within your own heart is a source of healing energy – if we can allow ourselves to open to it by practicing self-compassion.
The following is a loving kindness meditation that can help us tune into and cultivate our natural sense of caring love.
Begin by choosing a spot to sit in that is both comfortable yet dignified, either in a chair or on the ground.
Allow your eyes to gently close, or softly focus your gaze on an object in front of you.
Place your palms either face up or face down on your lap and gently roll your shoulders back so that your back is straight up.
Feel strong and relaxed with the ground or cushion beneath you. Hold your head upright, as if there is an invisible string gently pulling at the top of your head.
Then, when you’re ready, breathe from your belly, in through your nose and out through your mouth.
After five rounds of deep belly breaths, begin to introduce the following statements to yourself, silently or out loud, whichever feels best.
“May I be safe”, “May I be happy”, “May I be healthy”, “May I live with ease”.
You can say one at a time over and over again, or you can say all four in a row, as many times as you wish.
As you repeat the phrases, just relax and allow yourself to feel what you feel. If you don’t feel of a direct result in the moment, it’s ok, and just let yourself to connect whatever is there.
In that way, you are cultivating loving kindness towards your experience, just as it is.
We will try another breathing exercise. Again, if you’re driving, skip this one. You’re going to need a few minutes.
Close your eyes and take a deep breath in through the nose and out through the mouth.
Now, imagine that the sun is shining, as you’re laying at a place where you feel safe: the beach, your favourite spot at the park, or simply looking through the window curled up in your favourite blanket.
Notice the warm sunlight going through your body, starting at the top of your head.
Then, moving down to your neck, your chest, your hands, your belly area, your legs, up until it reaches your feet.
Breathe slowly and deeply.
Now, you can go back to your normal pace of breathing.
Open your eyes when you’re ready and move your hands and legs gently.
When you feel anxiety approaching, sit or lay in a comfortable position.
Breathe in for four long counts. Breathe out for six long counts. Continue this deep breathing for a few rounds.
If you would like to take this exercise further, you can close your eyes and visualise roots growing from the bottom of your feet or tailbone and going deep into the earth.
If you struggle with quieting your mind during deep breathing, try adding a mantra to the practice like “I am safe. I am grounded. I am loved.”
Otherwise, simply acknowledge the thoughts that come to mind and release them as you exhale.
Breathing is really one of the best ways to slow our nervous system down.
This technique will help you face the day with a clear mind and also help you fall asleep at night.
Breathing techniques are a common strategy for fighting anxiety. In fact, one of the first techniques my counsellor taught me during therapy was a breathing exercise.
When your breath is shallow and you’re not breathing properly, this often times makes anxiety worse.
The goal here is to really slow your breathing down so that your physical symptoms start to go away.
For the 4-7-8 method, first sit in a comfy position and relax your muscles. Take a big deep breath in through your nose for four seconds.
Hold it for seven seconds. Next take an even bigger breath out for eight seconds. As you’re breathing out, part your lips and make a “woosh sound.”
If you want a visual guide for the technique, I recommend watching this video! I love that the background sound is waves crashing against the shore.
We’ve heard so much about the importance of hand washing lately. Hand washing not only helps protect us in terms of hygiene.
Take a moment while allowing the water to run over your hands before or after lathering with soap to acknowledge how the water feels on your skin. Is it warm or cold?
Adjust the temperature of the water.
Do your hands feel better under warm or cold water?
Acknowledge what your hands look like under the water.
Take a moment to really feel your palm touching the other (this is also a great technique to help children slow down and become mindful).
Paying attention to our tactile sense is a great way to remain grounded.
A grounding object is a comfort item you can keep or easily take with you on the go.
The item should be meaningful and remind you of happy things and memories.
Good examples are small objects like marbles, a healing crystal, a scarf, or a necklace from your loved one.
When you’re feeling anxious, hold the item in your hands and notice its texture. Then, start asking yourself a few questions.
What does it feel like? Who gave you the item? Why is it important to you?
Keeping a sentimental item brings you comfort and also helps you feel better through moments of anxiety.
Finally, one of the best ways to remain present is by practicing mindfulness.
This teaching is all about taking in the moment fully and being truly aware of yourself.
This includes your thoughts, feelings, emotions, and what’s happening around you.
Meditation and mindfulness tend to go hand in hand. However, mindfulness is more like a subsection of meditation.
With mindfulness, the purpose is to stay fully engaged with what you’re doing (even if you’re simply folding laundry!)
Meditation, on the other hand, is a formal practice where you’re in a seated position and focusing on your internal world.
Both practices are crucial to know when it comes to remaining present.
These 10 practices are each quite simple, and easy to apply. It can be helpful to write them down or put them in your phone, so that when anxiety arises, you’ll have them at the ready.
It’s also helpful to work with them one at a time, using the same one several times to get somewhat familiar with it, before trying the next one.
Then once you are confident in all three, you’ll know which one to try in a given situation.
Have you ever heard of grounding techniques before? Also, what helps you stay calm during stressful moments?
I would love to hear your thoughts on what you are doing to change your life in the coming days and years!
If you have any questions please reach out to me via adam@adam-lawrence.org. I would love to hear from you!
I really hope you found inspiration in this article.
Hello! My name is Adam and welcome to my space on the internet. Here you can find me writing about subjects such as spiritual growth, self-discovery, wellbeing, addiction recovery and mental health. Please connect with me on my journey and join the community!
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Today I will be sharing with you confidence building tips.
If you asked 100 people the question what is confidence? you would get 100 different answers. But one thing’s for sure, most people want it or want more of it. Why? Because, quite simply, confidence is a life changer.
Confidence can really make the difference between success and failure. So, it’s not surprising that when we struggle to do something, it’s our ‘lack of confidence’ that often gets the blame.
Imagine confidence as a medicine. Imagine being able to have a good dose of it whenever you need it. Who would not want some of that?
We sometimes struggle to find ways to gain confidence in ourselves. But making a few small changes can really boost your confidence and make you feel more empowered.
Because here’s the thing: Most of us are doing our best on a daily basis. We try to be good spouses, good parents, good employees, good citizens, etc. So, we should feel confident in ourselves!
Here are some simple ways to make you feel more confident.
Disclaimer: I am not in any way a certified Councillor or Therapist, therefore all the advice is given from my own experience.
Self-care is the most neglected thing with the majority of people. We are so busy doing everything else and forget to look after ourselves.
What we don’t know is how important self-care is to everyday life. In this post, let’s see how self-confidence relates to self-care.
Self-confidence depends on a combination of a few things, such as
Deeper explanation
Self-care, in simple terms, means taking good care of yourself, physically, emotionally, and socially, all balanced in that order.
When you practice self-care, you tend to feel good about yourself; you will have your ideal weight, you will know what makes you happy and what doesn’t, and you will understand yourself more deeply. This will help you in knowing how to tackle challenges as well.
So, look after yourself to help understand yourself better. Make time to exercise, meet friends, read, and practice all other examples of self-care you can read below.
It’s universally accepted that we are own worst enemy, but some of us have a source of negativity in our lives that is toxic.
It will be much easier to be more positive and practice self-love if you are surrounded by people who care about your well-being.
People who constantly put you down, are critical of your behaviour, and judge your decisions will only be another obstacle for you to overcome.
Sometimes we are in situations where we can’t remove a negative person from our life. In that case, try hard to constantly be mindful of your own perception of your current situation and feelings about your life. Don’t let their negative words influence your mindset.
For others, it may be a certain behaviour that is contributing to the negativity in their lives. Such as social media, where we can constantly feel the need to compare ourselves and our lives to others.
While strongholds are hard to break free from, try your best to limit engaging in any activity that you know makes you feel bad about yourself.
If you want to maximise your self-confidence, I recommend that you start to learn to silence any negative thoughts.
You need to stop them telling you that you can’t do it, that you don’t have what it takes.
Paying attention to discouraging thoughts that don’t believe in you automatically decreases your self-confidence and prevents you from acting.
Negative self-talk, it happens to all of us and it’s hard to control.
Those negative thoughts come to our mind, most of the time without us even knowing why. But that’s’ okay, don’t beat yourself up for that.
However, it’s really important that you learn how to recognize negative self-talk as soon as it occurs, in order to lessen its power.
When you’re able to identify negative thoughts, it’s then much easier not to listen to them and to replace them with neutral thoughts – or even better – with positive thoughts if you can.
When you’re able to recognise negative self-talk, you can finally ignore your inner critic!
So that’s why being self-aware of your own thoughts is so important!
Conversely, having a positive attitude is a true self-confidence builder.
Positive self-talk is encouraging.
Positive thoughts are like your own personal cheerleaders who believe in you and cheerfully support you, no matter what!
You can build a more positive mindset for example by not dwelling on negative experiences, replacing negative thoughts with positive ones and simply by switching your perspective and training yourself to see the glass half full.
Have you ever felt like you just knew something was off, but you went against your instinct and it felt dis-empowering? Seriously, if you ever have that feeling, trust your gut.
Push those other feelings aside and trust that you know what to do. In doing so you will focus on what you see/know/want and you will be able to hone your energy in on that idea; all your power will go there, and you’ll feel confident in your decision.
Start believing in yourself. It’s time to say I can and then go for it. Step outside of your comfort zone and trust in yourself.
Who cares what other people think of you while you make the decision to go for it! They can say what they want and they can hate on you, but ignore it.
It’s time to do things you’ve always wanted to do and take chances on things you are most afraid to go after.
In the end you don’t want to regret not taking the chance in the first place. Once you go for it and see what you are truly capable of then your self-esteem will boost.
I remember when I started meditating, sitting for just 5 minutes was an effort – now I sit for 30/40 minutes and I love it.
Meditation was the doorway to so many new things for me. It taught me to be more present in my daily life, to witness and observe my thoughts and feelings, to hear my own soul speak, and it helped me more confident and not get wrapped up in negative thoughts.
I knew my meditation practice was making a difference with how I am in my everyday life. I once had a short fuse and temper, but now I am a more peaceful person.
Meditation has had a massive impact on my life. Instead of having emotional meltdowns over certain situations, I feel peace. I now smile joyfully and takes things in my flow. That is the power of meditation. It naturally turns you into a calmer, confident, more peaceful person.
I would definitely make it part of your daily routine.
The best way to boost your confidence is to acknowledge your wins. No matter how big or small your personal accomplishments have been so far, don’t let yourself forget about them.
Keep your successes in mind by listing them down and placing that list where you can see it. It can be something small like finishing a book to something more significant like losing a bunch of weight. If you finished a certain school or you were successful in a project at your work, list it down!
Every time you feel self-doubt creeping into your mind, take a glance at your list of wins and you will notice a smile appearing on your face. If you did it in the past, chances are that you can do it again in the future. Keep that in mind and allow yourself to trust in your potential!
Probably one of the easiest ways to feel like crap about yourself is to compare yourself to someone else. But we all have done it at some point.
We usually compare ourselves to people who have more than us, or seem happier than us, or are more fit than us (just to name a few).
What we need to do is focus on ourselves and if we want to (insert what you want here: have more money, to be more fit, be a better friend, be a better partner, etc.). Look inward, and remember that sometimes what we see is just the highlight reel of someone’s life.
We see the 20% that’s above the water, when the 80% that’s lurking below could be pretty bad.
Journaling might not be a habit for everyone to pick up but it will most likely help you if you give it a fair chance. You only need a few minutes every evening to write your thoughts on paper.
You can write about your day, emotions you experienced or thoughts you had. As long as you keep it in a positive note, you will transform journaling into a great dose of self-empowering.
Writing about yourself and your life in a positive manner will impact the way you understand yourself and also the way you treat yourself.
You might notice that you start to respect yourself more as your self-esteem is boosting with every page!
NO!
It’s that simple. Just say no to things, you don’t like or don’t want to do.
Stop people-pleasing. The only person you should be pleasing is you.
Saying Yes to people to save your relationship is a harmful habit which kills your confidence slowly.
There is a difference between helping others and being used. It is vital to know the difference between the two in order to honour yourself.
Every time you say no to something insignificant, you say yes to your priorities.
It is necessary to set boundaries within which you can grow. Say no to everything that tries to interfere with your growth and success.
We all can agree on one thing. Complements are amazing, and it makes a person feel so special.
You compliment other people. Right?
But do you compliment yourself or pat your back when you do something great? I believe not.
It’s never too late to start complimenting yourself for every little thing you do. You have every right to feel special.
Be the first person to acknowledge your hard work and compliment yourself.
Whenever someone else compliments you, accept it with a smile and believe in it. Take every complement very seriously.
Confidence is not about gaining something new; it is about respecting what you already have.
Remember, confidence is something you have to focus on and work on to improve.
It does not happen overnight but increasing your confidence is a wonderful thing for your life.
You can become the confident person you want to be! And remember that confidence boosting is a life long journey but you can do it.
What are your tips for building your confidence? I would love to hear them.
I would love to hear your thoughts on what you are doing to change your life in the coming days and years!
If you have any questions please reach out to me via adam@adam-lawrence.org. I would love to hear from you!
I really hope you found inspiration in this article.
Hello! My name is Adam and welcome to my space on the internet. Here you can find me writing about subjects such as spiritual growth, self-discovery, wellbeing, addiction recovery and mental health. Please connect with me on my journey and join the community!
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