Self-love series I: Confidence

by Charline Catteeuw

An exploration of self-love, and all that comes with it. 

Everyone’s definition of confidence is different. But where does confidence come from? 

If you’ve ever struggled with self-esteem issues, know you’re not alone. We’ve all been there at one point or another - Most of us struggle with a certain degree of self esteem, and all of us go on an emotional health journey throughout life. But trust us when we say that criticising yourself constant and putting yourself down takes a lot of energy. Energy you could much rather put towards something else.

To us, confidence is a natural byproduct of loving yourself. Of being comfortable with yourself, and in order to be comfortable with yourself, you need to love yourself. 

When you are confident in your actions. You will do better at the things you do. We’ve listed a few of the things that help us overcome self doubt. 

 

Who do you want to be?
When we struggle with low self-confidence, we have a poor perception of ourselves - one that is often inaccurate. We like to believe that our future is in our very own hands, as life is what 10% what happens to you and 90% how you respond to it. Visualizing who you want to be and what you want to achieve is in your own mind is a great way to just give yourself that extra bit of self confidence we need to process and respond to actions in our life. 

 

Do one thing that scares you every day
You're no doubt familiar with the saying the quotation to do one thing everyday that scares you. With good reason. The best way to overcome fear is, you name it, to face it. Getting out of your comfort zone doing something that scares you every day can make you gain a little bit of confidence from every experience. You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to believe in fear being something to avoid facing.



Care for yourself

We're big believers that self care and confidence go hand in hand. It is hard to feel good about yourself if there is an emotional, physical or social aspect not in line. Without self-care, you can spend your life perpetually stressed, sick, and exhausted. Without taking the time to care for yourself, you can also miss out on the truly important things in life like spending time with loved ones or doing what makes you happy. One of the most important things you can do for mind and body is take a step back and allow yourself a break once in a while. Using that time for exercise and self-care is a great way to get into balance and build your confidence. 

Nobody is born with limitless self-confidence. The great thing about confidence is that you are the only person who knows how comfortable you are with yourself, and you are the only person who can change that about yourself.