Would you like to build your self confidence? One of the most rapid routes to achieving that goal may be to make an effort to start getting in contact with your feelings.
That statement may strange, but there are many people who must develop confidence in their own emotions as a prelude to feeling better about themselves. Perhaps you have sunk years and years in learning to deny and hide your true feelings. If this is the case, then you will have some deprogramming to do.
Remember when you were a child, having fun on the playground, when the neighborhood bully ran up and knocked you off the sliding board? Even if nothing like this ever occurred to you, think about what it might have felt like if it had. How would you (or did you) feel about that? I would wager that your emotions at that moment were sharp and crystal clear — and you probably had absolutely no problem in letting others know them, whether through yelling or crying, or even chasing after the mean kid and trying to hit him back.
I don’t suggest lashing out physically at other people, but short of that, what’s wrong with acknowledging your real emotions in every situation, the mad and sad ones as well as the happy and bright ones?
Sadly, the majority of people in this society have had drilled into them that they should squelch their emotions, and even to label some feelings as bad. Some folks have absorbed this idea so well that they no longer even understand what they are feeling from minute to minute. Getting back in touch with your feelings is crucial if you really want to build your confidence.
Accepting your emotions means acknowledging them all. From this moment forward, grant yourself permission to experience every emotion that wells up inside. Don’t choke it off!
When you are viewing a sad program on television, allow yourself to let the tears flow. If you happen to see some event that strikes you as tremendously humorous, let yourself have a good belly laugh, even if you are out in public and others look at you curiously. Yell about the driver who swerved in front of you on the expressway, and keep yelling until the angry feeling or just naturally dies away.
Experiencing your emotions, without condemnation, will liberate your true self simply as a consequence of facing what is happening for you at any given moment. And freeing that real self that you have kept hidden even from yourself all these years is almost certain to rocket your self confidence.
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