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How to cultivate self-confidence for long-term health benefits
Steve Jobs once said that one of the best doctors, among things like a good diet and exercise, is self-confidence.
What did he mean?
My interpretation is that our health suffers when we lose faith in ourselves. We deteriorate when we stop connecting with the part of us that knows who we really are and what we need at a deeper level.
Self-confidence is who we are in the absence of self-judgement.
Here are some ways to cultivate health-giving self-confidence:
First, reflect on the idea that self-judgement has power over our sense of self-confidence.
Our confidence drops the moment we criticise ourselves in some way.
I was often anxious when I was younger because I frequently entertained doubtful thoughts about who I thought I was not. This is why we can be nervous when we worry.
Confidence is more a state of being than a personality trait.
We can affect our self-confidence by removing judgement. When there is an opportunity to self-berate, you have a choice.
You can poison your soul by entertaining those ugly thoughts, or you can take a breath and return to creating what’s right in front of you.
Regularly engage in ‘creative expansion.’
A human who doesn’t create and only consumes allows their pride and joy to escape through an open hatch.
Confidence is cultivated by continually creating things. It’s what humans are here for and programmed to do.
This means building things. It means starting and finishing projects. It means taking risks and accumulating experiences comprised of moments of fear that grow our characters.
Do this at a rate and level of joyous intensity most would consider ridiculous. My life and confidence exploded when my creative output exploded.
If you aren’t expanding, you’re contracting.
