How To Handle Issues With Confidence In Your Life

Hey lovelies,

What a difficult year it has been, and many of us have found our confidence has been knocked. Enforced lockdown, working from home and being unable to see family and friends has left many of us with lower confidence and heightened anxiety. It's so important to not only look after the mental health of those around us, but also ourselves. Issues with confidence impact all aspects of your life, making it more difficult to nurture personal relationships or achieve success in the workplace. Here are 4 ways to increase confidence levels and get us back on track!
 

 

Look At The People Around You 

It has often been said we are the sum total of the 5 people we spend the most amount of time with, so pick your closest with care. Consistently spending time with negative people can have a huge impact on mental health and confidence levels. People who act in this way are often insecure themselves. It’s the old ‘misery loves company’ concept. You could also find that there are simply toxic people in your life who drain who you are and what you can achieve. Spend time with friends and family who leave you feeling positive and happy, not those who are a drain on your self esteem and happiness. With friends, that can mean backing away and choosing to spend time with others, it's harder with work colleagues so try to keep talk on work related matters and refuse to be drawn into negative chit chat and gossip. If it's a partner who is affecting your confidence levels, then discuss this with them but realise that there are many reasons for divorce and this could be one of them. If you can’t stop someone treating you this way, then ultimately, it might be time to say goodbye for good. 
 

Determine If It Is Deep Rooted

Alternatively, it’s possible that issues with confidence are deep-rooted in your past and tied to who you are. For instance, you may find that confidence links back to when you were bullied as a child or some other form of childhood trauma. Issues like this can impact you well into your adult life and that’s why they need to be dealt with.. If you think there might be something lurking in the back of your mind causing you to have a low level of confidence in who you are and what you can bring to the table, it might be worth seeking out counselling and cognitive therapy.
 

Body Confidence

By body confidence I mean not only loving the skin we are in, flaws and all, but also projecting confidence through body language.
Most of us have hang-ups regarding our appearance and it becomes a problem when we let that affect our confidence. Learn to love the body you are in, it's a wonderful creation and the only one we will have! By all means use go to the gym to tone up, have a great haircut and beauty treatments as a confidence booster, but ultimately learning to love ourselves is the ultimate way to raise confidence levels.
 

Fake It To Make It

 
There is a whole raft of research that shows if you act confidently, eventually you will be confident! Adopting a power pose makes you appear more confident to others, but also boosts the chemicals in the brains to make us feel more confident. In the same way smiling can make us appear warmer, more friendly and outgoing. Maintaining eye contact when talking to someone also helps to project confidence
 
I hope these tips help you understand the problems that you might be experiencing with confidence and how to approach this issue the right way. The good news is that when you start to tackle this issue and recognise it's a problem you can completely alter your life. You can become someone you love!