How to build confidence
Confidence, some people are born with it & some are not. I fell into the latter category.
Looking back on my life, my confidence grew slowly over time. One key step came from acknowledging the obstacles & challenges I over came – in my hurry to make progress in my life when I was younger meant I never stopped to take stock and see my progress. I worked on IT projects, the moment one project ends another project started. So my focus switched to the new project. It took my some time to realise that I never stopped to recognise my achievements.
So one simple tip, before starting something that daunts you, remind yourself you have felt this way before. Then like going to a movie, replay in your mind your successes – this helps fuel your inner confidence.
One word of caution, for any readers who are thinking, I don’t have any successes – you do. Trust me, I have been there. In the past, I assumed that a success had to be something huge – like wining an Olympic medal. Now that I am kinder to myself, success is getting of the sofa and going to the gym. So remember to think of your successes like your best friend would – they may be kinder to you than you are to yourself.
Related Posts
Stress and the immune system – Part 1
With the Coronavirus outbreak, I thought it would be beneficial to discuss how stress impacts the immune system. The immune system’s job is to keep the body safe and its very flexible but can be compromised by age and illness. There are two types of immunity:
- Specific immunity
- Natural immunity
Does nature restore you? – Part 2
In my previous post, I shared the evidence of how nature can restore you. I appreciate that not everyone in London lives within easy access to a green space, and it turns out that it may not be necessary to visit the green space just look at a green space. This first occurred to me a few weeks ago, when I was in Manchester. In the hotel reception they had screens playing a short video clip of a roaring log fire. A roaring log fire just happens to be another of those things that I find both calms me, reduces my stress levels and restores me. What I noticed is that I had a positive response to the video clip, even though it was just a film of a log fire rather than an actual log fire. So this made me think, would just looking at a picture of nature on your PC have the same positive impact as going out in nature. Li & Sullivan in a randomised controlled experiment demonstrated that views to green landscapes promote attention restoration and help individuals to recover from stress. In another study, researches in China, have discovered that viewing nature based scenes were restorative and those with more openness but no people were more lived to reduce stress. So maybe you could just look at a picture instead. So for those of you where its not practical to spend 5 minutes in nature per day, why not look at a picture of a green landscape (without people) on your mobile phone or tablet or pc, and see if it boosts your attention levels and restores you. References D Li and W C Sullivan, Impact of views to school landscapes on recovery from stress and mental fatigue. Landscape and Urban Planning, vol 148, 2016, pp 149 - 158.
Wang et al Stress recovery and restorative effects of viewing different urban park scenes in Shanghai, China. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 2016, 15, pp 112- 122
