How many times have you wanted to do something but then you freeze? And you start doubting yourself.
Or you keep trying to control everything so that you seem to have everything just as it should be all the time.
I used to do both.
The avoiding, the procrastinating and the “I’m fine, really” no matter how I was feeling!
Root cause of all of that: a lack of confidence.
More obvious consequence I was aware of: anxiety!
And that’s when I started to look for solutions and I found yoga.
Yoga has a way of releasing stress and restoring confidence at a very deep level.
And I do say restoring because we all have confidence in us. Most very young children burst with confidence. We have just unlearnt it.
4 aspects of yoga really help with restoring confidence:
Affirmations.
The power of affirmations is absolutely huge. Used enough, a positive affirmation will reprogramme your brain so that you see life from a very different perpective. And something that you were so scared of, isn’t that worrying anymore.
I find that starting my day with an affirmation always helps.
And whenever you feel yourself giving more weight than you’d like to your stress and worries, go back to that affirmation and repeat it. Again and again and again…
It will make a difference.
Visualisations
My favourite!
Basically, daydreaming for grown ups.
Your brain doesn’t know the difference between something that has actually happened and something that hasn’t happened but that you are thinking.
So, see yourself doing whatever it is that is scary. See yourself not only doing it, but doing it amazingly well, with ease, with confidence, with joy in your heart.
And really give yourself the time to experience the feelings that come with your visualisation.
You will feel that joy, that confidence, that ease inside you as if you had already accomplished what you want to do.
A minute or two are enough to make a difference and put you in a better place to do whatever it is that you want to do.
If you are working towards something more long term, build on that visualisation every day.
Spend a few minutes every day, daydreaming about your perfect life, or whatever other goal you are working towards. And really give in to the feelings that the visualisation causes.
It is fun, easy and really powerful.
Breathing
The whole important breath!
There is a reason that when you feel nervous or scared, everybody will tell you to “take a deep breath”.
When we are scared, stressed or worried, our breathing is shallow and just reinforces the stress response in the body.
You can break that circuit but changing the way you breathe.
Go for slower and deeper breaths. Allow your abdomen to rise as you breathe in and relax as you breathe out.
If you need to relax, try and make the outbreath slightly longer than the inbreath.
Mudras
Mudras are hand gestures that can change the way feel and with regular practise can improve your overall wellbeing.
There is one particular mudra which I used quite a lot called the Gesture of courage and that is designed to remove fear and restore confidence and courage.
Click on the link below to what how to do this
I often these techniques in my yoga classes to empower my students to feel courageous and confident.
What I love about them is that they can all easily be used off the mat, in your daily life.
You can make a habit of practising affirmations as you brush your teeth in the morning or visualising your perfect life just before going to sleep at night.
When you feel stressed and anxious, pay attention to your breath. Make it deeper and try and lengthen the exhalation.
And use the mudra of courage whenever you need an extra boost.
If you’d like to know more about the power of yoga to build your confidence and release your stress and worries, join me on the 11th January for a 5 days Self-Confidence challenge.
Click on the button below for more details:
I’m so excited by this, it’s going to be such a great way to start the year!