Confidence - the feeling or belief that one can have faith in or rely on someone or something.

 Confidence - the feeling or belief that one can have faith in or rely on someone or something.

July is the Journey to Confidence. Every month I set an intention early on in the month to embody a practice or principle  that can support this Journey of Life.

Growing up, I always felt self conscious and wondered if I could have done difficult or challenging tasks. My confidence was low. That belief that I could do tough things, amazing things was just a quiet whisper, and - confessions on the Journey - that bothered me.

I wanted to go up on a stage and speak, I wanted to approach the teacher and ask questions, I wanted to be heard. I wanted to do amazing things. I simply did not have the faith or belief in my own self.

While I was aware that I did not have the loud voice within me urging me to believe, what I did have was the wanting to. I wanted to be confident. This wanting propelled me to find ways to be confident. I started small. I started just doing things that I believed was hard, volunteering, asking questions, showing up. It was scary. The scariest thing was thinking I would fail and look stupid! All part of my self talk. Once I recognized that I was in my own way by entertaining negative self talk the decision was to be aware of how I spoke to myself.

Failure is part of life, so is getting embarrassed - both keep us humble and provides such useful feedback on our journeys. Embracing this realization helped me believe in myself so much more and build up more confidence.

I still have a way to go, but I can safely say that I certainly believe in myself much more than ever,getting to this place took a level of commitment, discipline and inner work and affirming of self

Peace