5 Easy Ways To Boost Your Confidence

Confidence is an elusive trait for many people worldwide, and it isn’t uncommon for even the most self-assured people to struggle with low confidence and self-esteem occasionally. According to a Sky News survey, one-third of young people in the UK lack confidence due to various reasons ranging from social media influences to perceptions of physical attractiveness. However, anyone can boost their confidence with a few simple tricks to excel in the most challenging situations. Here are some of the easiest things you can do to receive an instant confidence boost.

1. Crack a smile

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Flashing your pearly whites is reportedly a great and simple way to improve your self-confidence. Smiling can make you appear more calm, composed, and confident in yourself and your abilities. Studies show that smiles also release endorphins, so they positively impact your emotional health by making you happier. Furthermore, smiling can also banish feelings of stress to make you less anxious and worried in stressful situations. Therefore, practice smiling more as an easy way to restore your confidence when you need it the most. You can work on your smiles by giving yourself smile cues that remind you to smile regularly during the day. For instance, you can choose a sound, action, or visual reminder like seeing someone laughing as your smile cue. Then, challenge yourself to smile every time you encounter these cues till it becomes a habit.

2. Improve your appearance

Appearance is undoubtedly a major contributing factor to self-confidence since many people judge you based on how you look. Unfortunately, many people are dissatisfied with their appearance, with a Censuswide survey revealing that 80% of people aged 35-54 lack confidence in their appearance. Thankfully, you can readily change how you look to give yourself an easy confidence boost. For starters, groom yourself by taking regular showers, shaving regularly, styling your hair, trimming your nails, among others. 

Also, invest in an exquisite fragrance since studies show that 90% of women feel more confident while wearing a fragrance than their counterparts who go fragrance-free. Another study also suggests that fragrance can inspire confidence in men, and you can feel even more self-assured the more you like the scent. Also, if you choose to purchase sex pheromones to wear as a fragrance, this can encourage sexual attraction which ultimately makes you feel a lot more confident. Furthermore, dress nicely by wearing presentable, neat, comfortable, and fitting clothing to make you feel more confident and attractive. Finally, you can also work on particular issues with your appearance that affect your overall confidence. For instance,  if you have misaligned teeth that make you uneasy about your smile, you can invest in dental braces to straighten your teeth and give you the confidence to smile more. Similarly, for men, if unwanted hair loss is the issue, consider the benefits of Propecia vs Finasteride to treat your pattern baldness if that’s the source of your low confidence level.

3. Stop labelling yourself negatively

Many experts believe that labelling yourself as timid, shy, or awkward subconsciously prompts your mind to act accordingly. Consequently, you will feel inclined to live up to these expectations psychologically, affecting your overall confidence. Therefore, it would help to visualise and affirm yourself as strong and confident instead of entertaining negative self-talk, which is almost always damaging. You can change how you label yourself through positive affirmation and positive mental practices like visualising yourself achieving a goal to boost your self-assurance and prepare yourself for success. Seeing is believing, so picturing yourself as confident will undoubtedly prompt you to manifest behaviour that supports this mental picture at all times.

4. Embrace your superstitions

Superstitions are widely regarded as irrational and incapable of affecting the outcomes of any situation. However, researchers from the University of Cologne admit that superstitions have measurable performance benefits. As such, you can receive a confidence boost and improve your performance on a task if you believe in superstition. Therefore, feel free to wear your lucky socks, charm bracelet, or good luck tie anytime you have major performances like an interview or presentation coming up so you can remain confident. Also, you can indulge in any rituals that make you more self-assured, as long as they are safe and effective. 

5. Focus on others instead of yourself

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If you are low on confidence, shy, and nervous in social situations, you are likely overly self-conscious. This heightened awareness of yourself is often the origin of low self-confidence in social interactions since you constantly wonder how others perceive your actions and words. Therefore, experts recommend shifting your attention to what other people are doing or saying instead of focusing on yourself. For instance, if you are on a date, think about what makes the person you are talking to interesting. You can prompt them to talk more about themselves and lend a genuinely curious ear to hear what they have to say. Generally, many people want to talk more about themselves and be understood. Consequently, people will love it when you are willing to listen to them and genuinely understand what you say. In addition, you will come across as warmhearted and confident instantly.

How To Boost Your Self-Esteem

There are some people who go through life feeling 100% confident about everything they want to do in life. If you’ve ever been the person to feel a lack of confidence in your skills and abilities, you might be in the percentage of people who have issues with their self-esteem. You don’t need to feel unworthy of anything, as you deserve everything in life. The key is in knowing that you can build your self-esteem and confidence up so that you can feel as if you are capable and worthy of more in life. 

Most of the time, there’s a solution to a problem. If you’re dealing with issues with getting older and the effects on your skin, then you should know that a facial and good eye cream is going to help you. If you were losing your hair, then a prescription of finasteride 1mg could make a difference. The point is that whatever your issues are with your self-esteem, there’s likely going to be a solution out there to help you. Your confidence matters and your self-esteem matters, and if you do something about it early enough you can build on it and make sure that you are feeling fully confident about your day-to-day life, too. Self-esteem isn’t static. It’s going to go up and down depending on what you have going on in life, and you needn’t strive for perfection for acceptance from your peers. In fact, you should be able to improve your level of self-esteem and build your confidence and happiness, and the biggest factor here is in knowing that you deserve it. So, with this in mind, here are some helpful ways that you can boost your self-esteem!

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  1. Take some responsibility. It’s important that you remember that you are in charge of yourself. If you have low confidence, you have to make a map to get your confidence back. You might not be able to control external factors in your life all the time, but you can certainly control your reactions to them. You can control whether you go out there to get some help with it. You are responsible for your happiness and your successes, and you have to take some responsibility for it. Creating the right habits to boost your self-esteem are on you, and if you don’t create those habits, you’re going to miss out! Your self-esteem is important, and if you take some responsibility for it, you’re going to find a way to feel more confident, you have to remember that you are the driving factor behind it. 
  2. Know what you value, and live those values. If you start to live a life of purpose and intention, you are going to clarify what matters the most in your life. Your values are your personal foundation and the most you live by those, the better. These values are going to reflect the decisions that you make, and they’re going to give you a better sense of self, too. Living with integrity is important for your whole future, and your words, thoughts and ideas depend on it. Your confidence will grow when you have a stronger sense of self.
  3. Know what your strengths are. As important as it is to know your weaknesses, you need to know what your strengths are, too. Knowing what you are strongest at will help you to learn what you’re good at, and this will help you to feel good about yourself. If you want to have good self-experiences, then you need to have some great self-awareness. That means you need to make a list of all of the things that you’re good at. And then you need to believe in those things. 
  4. Face your fears. No matter what they are, facing your fears is so important if you want to boost your self-esteem. No one is exempt from fear; we all have fears and it’s those fears that either fuel you to do more and face them, or it makes you shrink away and more afraid of everything. The most important thing that you can do is face your fears and beat them. Identify them, face them and beat them for your confidence to go up.
  5. Commit to your happiness. It’s important that you commit to being happier if you want to build your confidence. One of the biggest issues with self-esteem is that you are living more in your head than in the world around you, and it’s important that you commit to seeking out things that will make you happier if you want to feel happier!

Social Anxiety – Struggling to get involved

I’ve been struggling with social anxiety for as long as I can remember. Whilst I am getting better at going out & socialising my anxiety still holds me back.

Recently I contacted my local community project to get involved. I figured I may be able to help spread the word about events & fundraising and maybe get to meet a few more people locally. Feeling brave I typed out a message & hit enter. I got a reply and we organised meeting up for a chat.

Izzy fell ill and I missed meeting the guy who runs the project. I contacted him to apologise and agreed to rearrange. My anxiety is preventing me from messaging again though. I’m just a small blogger who writes to pass the time especially when I’m in pain. How could I actually help?

I was also invited to the community house meetings which are on a Thursday evening. Of course I let everything get in the way so I was ‘too busy’ to go. This has annoyed me. I’m preventing myself from moving forward with the blog & getting to know more people in the community. Why? Because I’m scared. I’ve always been the weirdo’s kid, the outcast and I still feel that’s how people see me. 

Whilst my confidence has grown in some areas my personal confidence is still struggling. I know I can offer something to the community, I’m doing well with the blog but I don’t have the confidence I need to get that across. Getting to know people locally could be nice but at the same time I quite like being unnoticed. I guess I am a bit of a loner. Realistically though  I need to get out more, I need to meet more people, I need to have more confidence in myself and start getting involved more in the local community.

I’m determined to work on this but I know it’s going to be tough. I feel perhaps looking at online therapy may be helpful rather than face to face.

Do you have social anxiety? Do you have any confidence building tips? Has getting involved in a community project helped you overcome social anxiety?