How To Overcome Low Self Esteem By Combating Negative Thought Patterns

Negative thinking can have a great effect on your life. It can hold you back in so many ways. It can end up making your life miserable. Your can get into the habit of thinking negatively. If you think negative thoughts and you accept them as being true, you will feel miserable, sad and anxious. You will not be able to be the person you want and deserve to be.

Your sub-conscious mind is responsible for your emotions. It effectively runs your whole body. You could think of your sub-conscious mind as your engine room. It keeps your heart beating and your blood pumping. It also instructs your conscious mind to think. Anything that is accepted into your sub conscious will reflect in your physiology. Your physiology refers to the way that you feel and act. Your sub-conscious mind cannot reject any thoughts. All the thoughts you have – both positive and negative, will be sent to your body. As a result both your conscious mind and body will react as your sub-conscious mind believes it must. For example, if you tell yourself, “I do not feel confident” – guess what, that is exactly how you are going to feel!

Most people believe these negative thought patterns are true, regardless of how untrue they are in reality. Negative thoughts are likely to focus on the worst case scenario in every situation. People tend to reinforce these negative thoughts over and over again. These messages will only help you to feel badly about yourself and halt your level of self worth.

What you believe to be true and accept into your sub-conscious has a direct impact on every area of your life. You must learn to control your thoughts. If you fail to do this, you will be up and down like a yo-yo. Negative thoughts only serve to drain your energy and motivation. However, learning to reject negative thoughts can be tough.

Here are two practical exercises that you can try if you feel overwhelmed by negative thoughts.

Exercise One

1 – Find a peaceful place. Stop and sit down.
2 – Relax and shut your eyes. Take slow deep breaths.
3 – Think about three things that make you happy, passionate and excited.
4 – After ten minutes, open your eyes, stretch out your arms and stand up.
5 – As you go about your day, focus on the positive images that came into your mind.

Exercise Two

1. Get a large piece of paper and a pen.
2. Divide the piece of paper into two columns.
3. Put the heading ‘negative thoughts’ into the first column.
4. Put the heading ‘positive thoughts’ into the second column.
5. Write all your negative thoughts down. Read them back to yourself.
6. Write a positive thought that contradicts the negative thought.

It takes approximately thirty days to develop a habit. Make a habit of only accepting positive thoughts into your subconscious mind. Remember, your subconscious mind has control over both your body and your mind.

In order to change, we must first learn to take responsibility for our actions. It will take time to learn how to develop a higher level of self – esteem and confidence. There is nothing sad about wanting to be the best you can be. Whatever you do, don’t give up. You a special and unique person who deserves to think and feel good about yourself.

For a no cost video program showing you step-by-step how to overcome negative thought patterns please click here.

How To Increase Low Self Esteem The Easy Way

I have written a short ebook on how by destroying negative thought patterns you can help to boost your self esteem.

You can click here to download it for free.

I hope it helps :-)

Two Key Strategies For Improving Self Confidence

Our level of self confidence has a direct impact on many areas of our lives. Self confident individuals tend to find it easier to become successful emotionally, financially and socially. Everybody is capable of improving their level of self confidence. First, you have to make a decision. Are you prepared to work hard and really focus on improving your self confidence and self esteem?Think about what you want to achieve in life? How will improving your self confidence help you to achieve your objectives?

Here are two simple strategies that you can use to improve you self confidence - starting today.

Strategy One - Be positive about life.

· It is vital to train yourself to appear positive on the outside, even if you do not feel positive on the inside. By behaving in a self confident manner, you are more likely to feel more self confident on the inside.

· Nobody likes other people talking about them in a negative way. Why then, would you choose to say nasty things about yourself? Think how you would like to be treated by others. Now, apply that to the way you treat yourself.

· Avoid people who either pity you or treat you badly. This will only result in you maintaining a low level of self esteem.

· Never let a person lead you to believe you are in some way inferior. You have strengths and talents that deserve to be credited. If somebody cannot treat you with respect, they are quite frankly not worth your time.

· It is vital to start thinking about the way you talk both to yourself and about yourself. Start to believe and talk to yourself in a positive way. Always talk about what you are doing in life, your future, your family and social life in a positive fashion.

Strategy Two - Focus on your strengths and your achievements.

· We are all human at the end of the day. Nobody is perfect. Nobody gets things right all the time. Don't be afraid to make mistakes or ask for help if you need it. Avoid trying to be a perfectionist at all costs. It is not healthy and you will only succeed in failing to achieve your goals. All you can ask from yourself is to try your best. That is all anyone can do.

· Everybody is good at something. People tend to be good at things that they enjoy doing. What are your hobbies and interests? What are you passionate about? What new activities would you like to try but have never done before? Is there something that you would like to learn more about? Try to set aside just a couple of hours a week to do something you enjoy. This will help you to gain confidence by meeting like-minded people.

· Learn to take a compliment. Smile and say thank you. You deserve to be given fair praise for your achievements. Start to pay compliments to other people.

· Finally, I want you to grab some paper and a pen. Think about all the things you have done up to now. Divide the paper up into two columns. In the first column, write a list of twenty things that you are proud of doing in your life. In the second column, I want you to list your ten greatest strengths. You can ask your family and friends for their input on this.

· Congratulations, you are already a winner. Keep this list in a safe place. Whatever you feel down, look at the list and smile your achievements :-)

How To Build Self Confidence Without Weight Loss

Many of us are overweight. You are not alone. Maybe you have a little bit of puppy fat or are physically obese. Both your body and mind are affected whatever shape you are.

In this article, I am going to walk you through a simple technique. It can be used to make you feel much more attractive and self confident as a person. Use this technique to develop the right mental toughness and attitude. It will also help you to get into great shape.

Losing weight is something that should be done from a health point of view. However, often people want to lose weight because it will help their self esteem and confidence. The thing that most people don’t understand is that your self esteem comes from what you think about yourself. Self esteem and confidence should not come from what others think about you.

In every day life, we are greeted with pictures of stick thin models and glamorous actresses. This can make us feel inadequate and unattractive. We often find ourselves delighted when we see pictures of stars without make up and think “wow, she looks bad without her slap on just like I do!”

Step One - I want you to go and stand in front of a mirror. What you are going to do is reprogram your mind to associate your reflection with positive feelings. Very soon you will be able to stand in front of the mirror and feel great rather than feeling down about your appearance.

Step Two - I want you to think back to a time when you felt really good about yourself. It does not have to be about the way you look. It might have been a job you did well or a complement you received. Use anything which gives you that self satisfying glow in your stomach. Close your eyes and think of that moment. Really remember just how proud of yourself you felt. Remember that inner confidence. If it a compliment someone paid you remember their sincerity. Feel that glow and move it up from your stomach to your eyes. Feel the glow behind your closed eyes and smile to yourself. Really remember that moment in your mind.

Step Three - When you start to feel as strongly as possible open your eyes. See yourself as other people would have seen you at that time. See yourself with respect and admiration. Keep smiling at yourself and notice the confidence in your eyes.

Step Four - When you really feel great, squeeze together your thumb and forefinger. This will create an emotional connection between the way you feel at that moment and your reflection.

I want you to practice this every day for a month. Every single day. It takes a matter of minutes and does not cost you a penny. Over a period of time you will start to notice a dramatic change in yourself. You will notice that you have more confidence when you look in the mirror. Your self esteem will grow and very quickly you’ll not worry about your weight as much as you have done before.

It is very important you understand that this technique is not to replace your diet program. This is merely a way for you to start to feel better about yourself. As I have said, often people want to desperately lose weight because it will make them feel more confident. By using this technique you can become more confident in the way you look within one month. Couple this with a diet program that works and your results will be both visible and internal resulting in a new, improved you.

Feeling down and depressed about yourself can result in comfort eating. This, of course, can only end up with you putting on more weight and the vicious circle continues.

Use this technique to develop the right mental toughness and attitude. Use your healthy and sensible diet to get into great shape.

For more information on how to break negative thought patterns, please visit www.discover-self-confidence.com

How To Rid Yourself Of Negative Diet Habits In Five Easy Steps!

The power of the human mind has been well known to successful people from the beginning of time. Experts of the sub conscious mind, such as hypnotists, have come up with ingenious ways that bypass the conscious mind and speak directly to the sub conscious. Often hypnosis is used to help people achieve their weight loss goals. In this article, I will show you how to do that without any fancy hypnotist or high fees.

The sub conscious mind is the most powerful force in any human being. When you first learned to drive you had to think about every single thing to keep that car driving in the way you wanted to. Gears, mirrors, indicators and steering were constantly thought about. After a while driving becomes a habit. You repeat them so many times that your conscious mind no longer has to think about them. Your sub conscious runs you on auto pilot to carry out the manoeuvres.

So what does this have to do with weight loss? Well by using a concept called “auto suggestion” you can help your sub conscious mind “reprogram” yourself to stick to diets, eat healthier foods, enjoy working out and much, much more.

The reason so many people fail to lose weight is because they program themselves for failure each and every time they try a new diet. Due of bad experiences in the past with shoddy diet programs, they often tell themselves, “This won’t work for me” and give up a few weeks in. Think about whenever you have tried to diet in the past. How long did you stick at? Probably not long enough if you’re honest with yourself.

The technique I am to teach you now will enable you to rid yourself of these negative thought patterns that you are constantly bombarding your sub conscious mind with. You will be retraining yourself to be more positive about your weight loss. In turn you will develop a thick skin that won’t give up whenever a diet does not show instant and massive results.

Your emotions and thoughts are like signals. Whenever you feel bad about weight loss or dieting and have thoughts such as “I’m always going to be overweight” stop what you’re doing and follow these steps.

Step One. Think about what it is that makes you feel you’ll always be overweight. You’ll get an image come into your mind. Maybe it’s of you feeling down about a diet or you in the future and you haven’t lost any weight.

Step Two. Pay attention to this image. This is your unconscious telling you what thought is holding you back in your quest for dieting. This is the image that you consistently put into your sub conscious. You have programmed yourself to think this way and that’s why it is so easy to give up on diets when things get a little tough.

Step Three. Drain the entire colour out of the image. Shrink it and move it into the distance. If it happens to reappear repeat the process. Drain it, shrink it, and put it into the distance.

Step Four. Replace the image with an image of what you really want to be like. Fit, healthy and at your perfect weight. Get emotionally involved with the image. Think of how great it would feel to have lost all the weight you want to. Make it full colour and bring it closer to you.

Step Five. Hold your thumb and middle fingers together when you feel that rush of excitement about the new future you.

This may all sound a little crazy. However, this very cool technique for programming your sub conscious mind. Do this every time you feel a down about weight loss or have any negative thoughts. Before long it will become a habit.

Eventually, you will have created “a mind anchor”. When you press your thumb and middle fingers together, you will get the rush of excitement about your new, slim self. Any time you feel negative about weight loss you put your fingers together and your sub conscious will recognise this habit and use it to your advantage.

Ok. I do understand that this may seem a little “out there”. However, this is based on the science of Neuro Linguistic Programming. This is not some pie in the sky idea thought up by a lunatic. It is based on the science of the mind and it works in reprogramming yourself. Give it a go and stick at it!

For more information on how to break negative thought patterns and to get a free video on the subject then visit www.discover-self-confidence.com

How to overcome shyness in the modern world

Everybody has heard the phrase ‘to stand out from the crowd’. It helps to ‘stand out’ if you are trying to get that job or impress some one on a date. Have you have ever found yourself overlooked for opportunities? Have other less experienced or less qualified people manage to push in front of you? The chances are you were just not getting yourself noticed enough. Why ? Perhaps, you have been too timid or shy about it.

Some people say shyness is the natural enemy of confidence and with good reason. A little shyness in the form of modesty is an attractive attribute to a lot people. What we are discussing here is the type of shyness that prevents you from speaking clearly to people. This sort of shyness prohibits you from being confident around people you don’t know. Shyness can prevent you from achieving your full potential.

Many shy people believe they are ‘the way they are’ due to genetic or other biological reasons. Let me assure you of this fact. There is not a single shy person who cannot shed their inhibitions. Human beings we have the ability to make themselves what they want to be. It is important is to have the will to change. The first step is to stop labelling yourself as a naturally shy person.

Labelling is one of the main ways we affirm an identity to ourselves. This can be expressed both internally (our thoughts and emotions) and externally (the clothes we wear). The more we affirm something, the more we take it to be unshakable true. We fall in to the trap of acting in a certain way simply by falling into the trap of thinking we are that way inclined. The power of the mind can be a double edged sword.

So if we can affirm a shy identity, it follows naturally that we can also create a extroverted persona. Appreciate yourself as a fluid being not something set in stone. Avoid directly thinking about your shyness as an individual. Try to think about the situations in life where you desire a high level of self confidence. This could be a dinner party or even a visit to the supermarket. Start to imagine how you would like to be perceived by others and yourself.

One of the most common whys people attempt to overcome shyness is through alcohol. If you enjoy a drink you will know that one of the most enjoyable (and occasionally embarrassing) aspects of a drink is that you lose previously held inhibitions. You might find yourself saying or doing things that you would not consider doing in a million years. Many shy people turn to drink as away to conquer their inhibitions.

The problem is that this can lead to a dependency on drink. This of course becomes unsustainable in day to day living. You cannot go for a job interview after a few whiskeys. This type of reliance can lead to people making excuses for their shyness.

You transformation from a shy introvert to an outgoing extrovert needs to be as organic as possible. Alcohol is used by so many shy people because it makes strangers seem less frightening. Drinking tends to embolden people. There is the key point here. In order to learn to meeting new people you must start to look at other people differently.

One of the simplest ways to start doing this is through imagination. You should try and think about how other people deserve the same blank slate treatment. Try to approach other people with an open mind. After all, what have you got to lose?


For more information on how to overcome shyness, please visit www.discover-self-confidence.com

Why You Need To Develop The Habit Of Positive Thinking Today!

A positive frame of mind is important for so many reasons. Positive thinking is proven to enhance performance in productivity and quality. We tend to think more creatively and perform better when we are feeling positive and well. When you are on top form, your confidence levels will go through the roof and this can only help you in your work and personal life. If you can sustain yourself with regular challenges and honest self appraisal, the benefits are enormous.

Fear induces us to put the brakes on; to stop thinking in a productive way. Fear of poverty, of losing face, of being proved wrong hold us back from taking part in active decision making. As our judgement becomes clouded with negative thinking, we become timid in the face of adversity. Opportunity becomes redefined as an impossible challenge and we end up standing still whilst the rest of the world passes us by.

Negative emotions are emotions such as anger, fear, anxiety, jealousy regret, sadness. These emotions are capable of not only having a powerful, unwanted effect on you physically, but also of having a significant impact the way you conduct your life. Negative emotions can engrain habits of limiting decision making.

One of the benefits of personal development is that it can encourage all the healthy parts of you to grow and the less savoury parts to whither on the vine. It can improve our general well being and make us more harmonious inside. All of our emotional processes, attitudes, values, our beliefs and motivations are interconnected.

If life was easy then we would have nothing to be motivated for. That is why by bringing in other challenges and goals – be it learning another language or taking up a new creative hobby – you can develop a highly disciplined mind that will assist you in many other areas of life. Maintaining confidence and motivation is the secret to long term success. However, long term success is achieved from short term goals! What this means is through setting smaller goals and then rewarding yourself for achieving them on a regular basis.

Thinking well is being well. There are only a minority of people who achieve success without having any belief in them self or in what they are doing. Be proud of the positive steps you have decided to take in asserting control over your life.Think well of yourself. Change negative self-talk to positive self-encouragement. Give yourself the same consideration you would give a cherished friend. Learn to become your own cheer leader instead of your own worst critic.

Once you have banished these negative thoughts, you should turn your attention towards coming up with an action plan. This plan will form the bedrock of your positive state of mind. You can take this even further by putting reward days into the planner to act as an extra bit of motivation. By breaking your routine down into a series of short term goals you will have more fun and experience a greater sense of accomplishment along the way. Of course this will only work if you are honest and open with yourself. Your journal should never lie otherwise you are only telling lies to yourself and defeating the object of your goal.

Your plan should be customised according to your own personal set of requirements and informed judgement. The effects of this are that you will be proving to yourself that you can take control of your own destiny. With a clear structure in place, you will never lose focus of the task in hand. This will help to avoid the feelings of helplessness and submissiveness that can happen to people who feel like they are not in control of a situation.

For more information on how to keep positive please visit www.discover-self-confidence.com