Two Fun Ways to Increase Self Confidence Right Now

If you want to feel happier and more confident in your life, there are a couple of quick, enjoyable techniques you can use that will help you shift your negative feelings and beliefs in just a few minutes. These fun techniques really work, but before I show you what they are, I want to clarify one important point.

The Real Reason Why It’s So Hard To Feel Confident

Often we have the mistaken idea that we feel insecure or negative about ourselves because of something that happened to us when we were children. We think it was because of the way we were treated by our families or other influential people in our lives. This unfortunate belief can leave us feeling powerless to change these tendencies within ourselves.

However, as I said, this is simply a mistaken belief. The real reason that we feel so bad about ourselves at times is because we have fallen into the habit of thinking about ourselves and our lives in negative, critical ways. It all comes down to what we are thinking, moment by moment. And since we can choose to change our thoughts, we actually have the power to change our lives right now, in this moment.

The First Technique: Quiet Down the Crazy Monkey

Our negative thoughts are not reality. They are just thoughts. When something happens to us, there are many different ways we could look at that situation, not just the negative, self-critical interpretation that might come to mind first. To help you see this fact more clearly when you’re feeling negative, I recommend that you pretend that you have a crazy little monkey sitting on your shoulder who is whispering negative, unhelpful thoughts into your ear. In all likelihood, this will make you smile and will help you take a step back and recognize that your thoughts are just thoughts and you can choose to believe them or not. When the monkey whispers something negative into your ear, just carefully close its little mouth and tell it to be quiet. Then you will have room to think of a more positive, confident, and empowering way to look at the situation.

The Second Technique: Listen To Your Best Friend

I’ve always found it amazing how negative and harsh we can be to ourselves. Whenever we feel negative feelings of any kind, that’s a sign that we are thinking in negative, unproductive ways. We may criticize our actions and ideas before we even have a chance to try something new or we may expect the worst to happen. How long would you keep a friend that did that to you all the time? Not long, I’d bet. The next technique will help you to come up with more positive thoughts that will increase your self confidence right now. Here’s how to do it. Ask yourself this question:

What would my best friend say to me about this situation?

Your best friend believes in you and your abilities and he/she knows you will find a solution and will encourage you to keep going until you find it. Your best friend would be infinitely nicer to you that you tend to be to yourself, don’t you think?

To come up with more positive alternative thoughts about this situation, ask yourself what you would say to your best friend if they were in this situation. How would you encourage and support them in their time of need? These are the encouraging, confidence-building thoughts you can tell yourself that will help you feel better right away.

You Can Choose Your Thoughts

Whatever empowering new perspectives you come up with in this exercise, let these be your new positive thoughts. Go over them in your head, repeating them over and over until they start to feel true to you. All it takes to feel more confident in your life is to first develop an awareness of these negative thought patterns and then make a focused effort to challenge them and replace them with something more positive and life-affirming.

Although these two techniques may seem simple, they actually have the potential to truly change your habits of thinking if you apply them diligently. They also have the added benefit of being fun and easy to use. They really will help you to shift your patterns of negative, insecure thinking and help you feel a greater level of self confidence and well-being in your life.

Laura Lawson Boatman is a licensed therapist and writer. She is the author of The Creating Confidence and Success Program, an innovative program designed to help people quickly and easily transform negative habits of thinking and experience their natural state of confidence, well-being, and inspiration. For her free guide that will help you quickly increase your self confidence, please visit her website at CreatingConfidenceandSuccess.com. You can also try her free confidence-building recording there and experience the transformative power of her program for yourself.