What makes people like Tiger Woods, The Dalai Lama, Barack Obama, Nelson Mandela, Gandhi, Eckhart Tolle, Oprah and other impactful people different than you and I? One is that they are well known by many who follow their particular stories. We don’t have that kind of notoriety. Maybe they are recognized because they believe in themselves and therefore others believe in them?
Where does believing in oneself come from? How come most of us are filled with so much self-doubt? Have you ever known someone who really believes in who they are? Can believing in self and humility go together?
You learn to believe in yourself or have self-doubt from an early age. By the time school comes around your family has already influenced your sense of self. Then school happens and for many self-doubt really grows. If church is part of your upbringing then most likely you have even more self-doubt. Is self-doubt caused more by your thoughts and your emotions or by the world around you?
When you are a child, you are influenced by the messages of adults around you because you are trying to figure out how to receive the approval of others. When an adult your sense of self is much more of an inside set of thoughts and not so much under the influence of others.
If you want to improve your sense of self and to feel more confident then you must know yourself. A healthy sense of self comes most from paying attention to your thoughts, your self-talk, your emotions and your own spirit. This self-awareness allows you to better understand your uniqueness and if you are accepting of who you are then you are able to believe in yourself.
Key aspects of self-acceptance include:
• Knowing how you feel is self-validating
• Living with purpose gives you direction and meaning
• Expressing your uniqueness is liberating
• Directing your self-talk to be supportive allows more success
• Listening inward to your higher knowing will guide you to the life you desire
• Paying attention to your spirit helps you live a satisfying life
• Opening your heart fills your life with love
• Trusting your intuition sets you free and opens your life up
• Caring for your body, keeping fit and healthy gives you a strong foundation
• Having compassion for your challenges makes your journey more confident
• Setting for yourself clear intentions will drives your actions in ways that assure greater success
• Allowing silence to nurture you will open you to the greater mysteries of human possibilities
• Seeking consciousness will open the doorways to your highest expression
• Expressing yourself creatively will liberate your uniqueness and brighten the world around you.
Start today with this thought, “I fully and completely accept myself and this gives me true freedom to be.”