More and more young people don’t feel good enough. Often, this is related to their appearance. Unlike what many people think, not only women are suffering from a low amount of self-esteem regarding their physical appearance. Men as well, tend to feel not enough.
It has something to do with current beauty and social standards. People with huge amounts of confidence don’t have this issue. They don’t care about the opinion of others regarding their body or other characteristics.
Lack of confidence can in the longer term develop social anxiety. When you’re constantly afraid of other people’s opinions, you eventually are afraid of everything.
But if you assume that confidence is like a muscle and can be trained, why don’t start today? What if you could develop some daily routines that increase your amount of self-esteem?
Here are 3 micro habits of extremely confident people that you can apply today.
Daily conscious breathing
Perhaps you wouldn’t consider meditation or breathing exercises among the habits of confident people. But they are quite effective to increase your self-esteem and confidence.
Since I started meditating, my confidence has grown and that has mainly to do with developing trust in yourself and your body. If you can’t trust your body, who or what can you trust? It’s somewhat related to Neuro-Linguistic Programming.
One great example of that is when you start looking at yourself in the mirror and yelling at yourself how great you are, after a while you start to believe it. It’s a great exercise for those who don’t feel confident about their bodies.
If you could make these breathing exercises and mirror moments a habit every morning and evening, you’re able to grow your confidence a lot.
Instead of just breathing, take the time to realize what you’re doing. You are breathing in some fresh air to clean your lungs. After a couple of seconds, you are breathing out. Don’t rush, take your time to breathe.
Your heart rate starts dropping. You are getting calmer and you will feel more confident.
Daily workouts and training
Working out isn’t just good for your physique. Mentally, you will benefit from it too. Burning lots of energy creates dopamine and makes you feel happier. Did you ever notice that you’re much more energetic after a workout than before?
Often, I don’t want to go to the gym or do exercise, but when I’m finished I feel fresh and energetic. Taking a cold shower afterward increases my happiness even more.
To finish the whole package off, add some meditation before and after your exercise as well — this makes you calmer and more focused during your training.
Making this into your daily habits increases the amount of self-esteem in the long term and short term. Not only you’ll feel better after the workout, but your body simply improves after a couple of months which helps you to feel much more confident.
Daily creation
This ties in perfectly with daily exercise. It makes us more creative.
With daily creation, you stimulate your brain to think. By creation, I mean writing, crafts, arts, etc… Things that are often suggested to do when you’re suffering from mental health issues.
Doing both daily exercise and creation increases our confidence. I’m writing around 1000 words on a daily basis to keep my brain active and I simply enjoy it. Publishing these works creates dopamine because you can inspire and help other people with your work.
Success is a huge factor to develop more self-esteem. Have you ever seen a professional athlete with a lack of confidence? This could either be because they’ve grown their confidence because they won a lot, or because they’ve always been confident.
People with a lack of confidence tend to win less. I noticed this. I’ve been playing darts for around 7 years now and only in the last 2 years when I improved my confidence, did I start winning things.
Start doing things that generate dopamine, right now.
You could decide to write around 300–500 words a day. In journaling, for example, you don’t have to publish things straight away but writing things down for yourself organizes your thoughts.