Confidence is one of those things that more and more people today seem to struggle with, and that’s a devastating thing.
When your self-confidence is low, it can be difficult to put yourself out there in the world, pursue your dreams, and foster meaningful and life-affirming relationships. It also just hurts, in its own right, and causes plenty of emotional pain.
If you have chronically low self-confidence, and self-esteem, those are things that will need to be worked on in a focused way, and as a long-term kind of thing. You may find that you could benefit immensely from the help of a professional therapist.
That being said, there are various things that you can do, starting today, that can help you begin to walk along that path.
Here are some suggestions.
When people suffer from chronically low self-esteem and confidence, they often neglect their physical presentation. This is partly due to a belief that trying to make an effort wouldn’t really matter, or achieve anything, anyway – and it’s partly due to the general inertia that comes with feeling low about yourself.
Taking steps to be more mindful about your presentation, on the other hand, can go a long way to improving your self-confidence.
If your wardrobe is full of clothes that you have because they were on sale, or because they fill a certain function – but all of them make you feel bad about how you look – then buying some clothes that you actually like the look of is a great step in the right direction.
Or, to give another example, if you are insecure about your teeth, visiting a dental practice can really make a big impact
It may feel awkward to begin taking care of yourself in this way, but it’s really worth doing.
These days, distraction comes more easily to most of us than it has ever before in human history.
If you’ve got an evening to yourself after work, what do you do? Probably, you surf clickbait articles on the web, and watch Netflix.
Although there is a time and a place for these sorts of passive forms of relaxation, dedicating too much of your time to these distractions is almost always going to be bad for your self-confidence, not good for it.
If you can cut out or limit these distractions, and do more meaningful things with your free time, your sense of self-worth will almost inevitably rise.
Spend your evenings and weekends learning new skills, tidying up your house, planning a holiday, or learning a language, instead of just “killing time” and feeling lazy and guilty as a result.
The author and academic Cal Newport has recently been writing about the fact that digital interaction – as in, social media – seems like it connects us to our friends, but actually makes us feel more isolated.
When you’re constantly surrounded by digital noise, and spend a lot of time checking other people’s newsfeeds, you are likely to feel left out, instead of feeling included. Give yourself a boost of natural pheromones to appeal to the opposite sex. Heighten your presence without effort with the best pheromones available.
There is evidence that – to feel better about yourself – spending more time interacting face-to-face with the people you really care about is the right way to go. Reduce those digital distractions in your own life, tone down the noise, and meet a friend or relative for coffee instead.
That’s a really interesting view point. Distractions can definitely get in the way. Though also work well at distracting from feeling not so confident in some situations.
I think cutting out some of the distractions is one of the best advice I can give someone about being boosting their confidence.