First things first, being rare is one of the most profound yet often overlooked concepts. Do you realize that not one single person on this Earth is just like you? It is impossible to replicate or try to be exactly like someone else. Competition (which is, sadly, familiar to women) DOES NOT exist.
Phew, that is an enormous sigh of relief.
The downside, though? Many women/people cannot grasp this concept and strive for their version of “perfection,”…which is still *cough cough* unique to them….I digress.
Similar to the fact: it takes more muscle use to frown.
When you aren’t authentic, you are using a much larger capacity of emotional, physical, spiritual, and mental strength to “maintain.” You are doing yourself a disservice.
Going against my most authentic self, in my own experience, is due to my lack of self-confidence and discomfort with my authenticity.
So with my experience in mind, here are five things that helped me establish and maintain confidence in myself…
- Trusting your gut/intuition
- Keeping promises to yourself
I am grouping these two because connecting to your internal self is a matter of connecting. When you begin to behave from a place of self-value, you will notice that your body, mind, and heart have your back! Knowing when you feel “off.”
Ways to connect back to yourself? Things that helped me: stretching, yoga, journaling, sitting in silence when you are alone, dancing.
- When you feel good (i.e., wearing something that makes you feel beautiful; someone compliments your efforts at work; you are in an excellent mood), write something short and sweet to yourself.
Reading something written from the best version of yourself, you can trust what is written. It helps when you need support – a reminder from someone who has gone through something hard and made it out on the other side happy. Who is better than yourself to hold that space?
- Doing things that serve you rather than what society expects.
Search within yourself…what makes YOU happy. What lights you up? That took me writing out everything I liked and then trying those things. Realizing I hated it allowed me to ask and answer: what brings me joy, honestly?
When you show up and do things that remind you that the world can be a happy place, you are more content and building a genuine and honest relationship with yourself.
My list shifted and still does shift; things I may have liked two years ago are likely different. As you grow and connect more with the best version of yourself, you are likely to adapt and change.
- Clear out the mind constipation
Have you ever heard of mind constipation? One day I thought about mental clarity and didn’t like the term clarity lolol, so I randomly thought about constipation.
Antyways, You know how you can be in the mall, and everyone is talking so loudly and all at once that the sounds become muffled? That is how I envision mind constipation. When you store information in your mind without an outlet (e.g., journaling, dancing, talking to a therapist, brain dumps), you create a backup that doesn’t allow for a clear path to the best, most confident version of yourself.
If you choose to begin a practice I listed, I hope you can feel more connected to yourself, allowing a more confident version of yourself to shine through. Doing things that help me gain mental clarity and establish a healthy relationship with myself allowed me to gain insight into what truly matters to me. It supports the life I am trying to create and removes any unwanted energies from my life BECAUSE I have access to a healthier me.
