More Confident

I think a very good method to raise self-esteem is working out /exercising. Nothing makes you feel better about yourself than a good workout. Also doing other things for yourself helps, like buying new clothes, getting a haircut and other stuff like that. Also going out with friends or going out on dates makes you feel great.

Working out has been a very good influence in these couple of weeks. Thus far I am rehearsing my ability to step out of my comfort zone and do new things. Courage really helps in creating self esteem and basically enlarges the psychological boarders of the freedom to choose.

For those thinking about working out in the means of running or cycling there is a really great app on the market called "Run Keeper." It offers a lot of functionality and different stats. By GPS it tracks your distance and time, besides that it shows the calories you have burned. You can add certain goals to it that you want to work on and there actually is also the possibility to join a community by making a street team. The amount of offered service is very high. The free version is more than enough for me anyway and it can give a lot of pride and feelings of accomplishment when looking at the results and posting runs onto Facebook or twitter.

Here are a few things to think about to make you feel better!

Positive environment, people, sunlight, music.

Positive thoughts, optimistic, sunny, bubbly

Acting in a confident way, walking taller, dressing smarter, smiling

Acting can lead to the feeling can lead to the thinking

Achieving something, accomplishing a goal however small

Environment is such an important factor, being aware of this is really half of the thing I do believe. Did you know that your physiology (the way you carry yourself) has a direct impact on your mood? When someone is feeling bad they automatically take a certain posture and breathing rate that's typical for that state. Yet when feeling bad and training yourself to remind yourself to keep a straight posture and keep breathing deeply can really improve how you feel. Partly because of this reason I think that practicing of yoga, meditation, mindfulness or actually also sports is so important. Things that have a positive impact on body and breathing awareness really help to stimulate on conscious competence and promote better feelings overall without much direct effort in the moment.

Listen to self-hypnosis tracks first thing in the morning (before I kick start the day) which is basically a guided daydreaming experience. That way I make sure I start my day with some positive fantasizing exercise. I really believe in the power of visualizing and day dreaming, and as a teenager, unaware of their positive effects, I would fantasize about my ideal future just before falling asleep, but these days, with the load of work and responsibility adulthood brings with it, it is quite difficult for it to happen on its own, so I found that, even if I don't get to do any day dreaming during the day, the small dose in the morning is enough to motivate me.

Self reflection. Always have a pen and notepad on me, and I jot down self-reflecting thoughts that come to my head, so I always make time for my inner philosopher.

Self-reflection at night time is also always the way to end your day on a high note. Even if you have felt horrible through out the day, just before it comes to an end, you turn things round and make something positive out of it, i. e. you learn from the day.

Also I find that weekly challenges that put your courage to test can be an excellent confidence booster.

According to science the amount of self esteem is linked to the amount of courage someone is willing to invest. Every unit of courage spent will pay back in self esteem.

Jack Canfield summed it up very nicely. It's like a stack of poker chips. When you would be playing at a table and your stack would be high, then you would be willing to take more risks and participate. The real deal is to raise your stacks of confidence to participate in life more.

Meditation is a very good way to develop confidence and self esteem. It's far from a quick-fix method, but the daily investment someone would be willing to make could sum up to a tenfold return over time.

Meditation promotes non judgement, calmness and patience. This creates space for new ideas and more room for self examination in a more eased way. With time someone can really understand himself through this process and instead of be acted upon by external events, just choose his response in a detached and emotionally more stable way. Why I also think this is so important is because the quality of thoughts determine the quality of our lives. The quality of our decisions ultimately make our future.

I hope this helps some people!