Don’t start another confidence course until you read this
The first week you’re giving yourself dirty looks in the mirror. The gym has become your second home and you’re feeling like a queen, high-five-ing everybody as you enter the gym. But as time passes, you lack enthusiasm and you tell yourself ‘I’ve worked so hard, my Brazillian butt can wait one day’. But one day became 5 days and then all of a sudden you haven’t stepped a foot inside of the gym for a month. As a result, your bubbly Brazillian butt went out the window. ‘Bye Felicia’.
In fitness, you need to keep occupying the squat rack, or else you’ll have to start from square one. The same goes for self-confidence. If you don’t practice self-confidence every day, you’ll have to start over.
Honestly, I’m the worst at starting over. I always tell myself the same lie “That program didn’t work anyways”. Which isn’t true! The program worked, I just didn’t follow through with it. But building self-confidence is hard work, just like getting in shape is. However the same goes for both, it’s definitely worth it. When you have mastered confidence, people will lose their breath as you enter a room.
Why is consistency key?
10 years later I finally realized that the saying ‘Consistency is key’ was something I needed to take seriously. So I did, and I’ve never been more confident!
See, when you’re striving for rock-solid self-confidence, the first thing you need to beat (in my opinion) is your self-doubt. The most effective way is by paying close attention to your thoughts, every moment of the day so you can catch bad thoughts and switch them out with good ones. This kind of self-awareness can be very exhausting in the beginning, but if you practice it every day it’ll become easy breezy, just like brushing your teeth… after eating Nutella…
Practicing mindfulness and staying consistent with that simple task every day, is the number one way to assure a more confident life.
I wanna show you how easy it is to be mindful, so that you can incorporate it into your everyday life, without any effort.
What are the positive effects of mindfulness?
Mindfulness will:
activate the parts of the brain that has a connection to your positive emotions.
help you decrease stress.
help get rid of (wait for it) self-critical thoughts!
help you develop a stronger immune system.
create lower blood pressure which will naturally calm you down.
improve your mental health overall!
Why should you implement mindfulness in your daily life?
Implementing mindfulness in your day to day life will quickly have a huge positive impact. So let’s dive into how mindfulness works and why it’s important to make a daily habit.
I will especially focus on how to get rid of your negative thought patterns, through mindfulness, so that you can make space for positive, supporting and loving thoughts.
Now, I want you to imagine a busy road full of cars of different colors, shapes, and sizes. All of the cars represent your thoughts. When you don’t practice mindfulness, it can feel like you are standing in the middle of a busy road. You are surrounded by all of the fast driving cars (your thoughts). This can stress you out and become overwhelming because you don’t have an overview of what thoughts are “driving” by in your head.
However, when implementing mindfulness, you will be sitting on the side of the road, calmly watching your thoughts “driving” by.
This will give you a sense of control and an overview of what thoughts fill the most. Now you’ll have a chance to catch the negative thoughts and replace them with positive ones instead.
To become aware of our thoughts we need to practice mindfulness.. Are you ready?
Nr. 1: Slow down your thoughts
The full exercise takes 3 minutes: 3 MINUTES! THIS ONE IS A WINNER!
Bring out your watch or a timer on your phone. For the first 2 minutes, I want you to just observe and count your breath. Try your best not to try and control it. Just let it flow naturally and untouched.
For the last minute, I want you to take as deep breaths as possible. Try to match the length of your inhale with your exhale. So inhale 1…2…3…4…5… and exhale 1…2…3…4…5…
When you’re done, try to reflect on how you’re feeling. Do you feel calmer? Maybe you feel more centered? Or do you feel better than before?
I will encourage you to make this a new daily habit. Maybe implement it every morning and every night when you brush your teeth. This will make it a lot easier to become a habit.
Nr. 2 practice yoga
I’ve found a short and sweet yoga practice for you down below.
Nr. 3 Stay mindfull while you commute
All of these 3 mindfulness practices can be done quick and easy, so for the next week, choose one and stay consistent with it.
How do you choose to stay mindful? Let me know in the comments below!
Related reading: Is your phone standing in your way of gaining self-confidence?
