Boosting Your Confidence Through Yoga and Meditation

Self confidence is an integral part of an individual's personality. Its biggest impact would be in terms of goal attainment, since self confidence also reflect belief in one's self and potentials. Lack of confidence therefore translates into inability to fulfill your potentials, and more importantly, unfulfilled goals.

And despite of its importance, there are a great number of people suffering from lack of self confidence. Experts believe that the best way to address issues of self confidence is to find its root. Why does one lack self confidence? That way, you can reverse that problem and gain more productivity through your own potential. This is important since internal forms of inhibition is the biggest obstacle in the attainment of one's goals.

Yoga practitioners continually practice meditation as part of their routine. But did you know that aside from spiritual upliftment, the act of meditation can also boost your level of confidence? This process begins by releasing tension off your mind and body so you can feel confident about your physical body. Without any form of worries or anxiety, you are able to establish a spiritual connection with your internal self.

After that phase, you begin to realize your true worth and value. This is often clouded by perceptions in the external world that make you fail to realize that value. Plus, it does not help that most people in the external world focus too much on external beauty and appearance. By doing meditation, you can alter your perception of things and self to realize what is truly important. And the more you are content with yourself, you become oblivious to the perception of others.

Yoga, on the other hand, provides a holistic approach at gaining confidence. It targets both your physical and emotional side to realize your value. This works on different layers and is often a gradual process. Therefore, you cannot expect to gain confidence through a one-time practice of yoga. It has to follow a series of development until you gain enough confidence.

The execution of yoga exercises help to shape, sculpt, and develop your body to make it physically strong. In fact, in some parts of the west they practice yoga solely for its fitness benefits. In addition to gaining physical improvements, it also re-energizes you so you can fulfill your daily activities. Once you incorporate breathing exercises and meditation to your performance of yoga asanas, it develops into a more spiritual practice that makes you realize the value of self. The use of visualization and guided imagery during meditation enhances your creativity and invites spiritual exploration. Once you have completed all the stages of yoga, you can finally reach the point of ultimate bliss wherein you are fully content and satisfied with yourself and what you have achieved.

To better understand how each aspect of yoga improves and facilitate in your effort to gain confidence, it is important to analyze them individually. Yoga offers a holistic approach at gaining confidence since it promotes physical and mental confidence. How does this happen? You can find out more below.

Self-Awareness

Experts suggest that there is no better way for one to truly acquire the benefits of yoga practice to your mind and body than through dedicated practice. Most people spend a few minutes or hours of each day doing yoga poses. But the failure to allot time for meditation deprive them of the spiritual and emotional enhancement that it can provide. This is a key concept that you should know if you want to achieve renewed level of confidence through yoga and meditation.

When you reach down inside you, you become aware of your potential and capability. And that awareness gives your level of self esteem a boost knowing that you can achieve your goals. It also erases negative thoughts or emotions that could arise from doubting yourself and your capabilities. With the knowledge of your potential, you can face your goal with confidence and ease.

Negative body image is one of the most common culprit to low levels of self esteem. However, a dedicated performance of yoga asanas and exercises will help to address this problem. There are literally hundreds of exercises that you can incorporate into your routine. So, choose them according to your own fitness and body improvement goals. For instance, you are having issues with your stomach area, you can choose exercises that help tone your abdominal muscles.

As you continue to perform these exercises on a regular basis, you will notice a huge improvement on your body shape, tone, and overall fitness level. Plus, exercising releases serotonin, which is why experience this “feel good” sensation every after workout. In addition to feeling good about yourself, excessive sweating is a good way to eliminate toxins off your body so you can increase your energy level. When your body looks and feels good, you become more confident about yourself and your body.

Improved Posture

Body language can say a lot more than verbal communication does. Hence, it is important to develop a good posture to communicate your confidence with yourself and your body. Regular exercise of yoga asanas are therefore useful in improving your posture so you can stand up straight instead of slouching. Moreover, yogis also advise against slouching since it can squash your internal organs that will inhibit proper functioning.

On a different aspect, posture also depicts confidence. Proper posture can either be a result of having enough self confidence or a manifestation of having confidence in yourself. You can produce proper body alignment through regular practice of asanas but be careful when performing these exercises to avoid straining your spine.

Yogis believe that the mind is more powerful than your body. So, whatever you set your mind to, your body can accomplish. The act of meditation helps to strengthen your mental ability such as improving your level of confidence.

Mental strength is what you need so you can eliminate any form of negative thoughts before it spirals into depression. Once you learn to be content in mind, everything else will follow. This will also enable you to determine the steps you need to make towards the attainment of your goals while utilizing your potential.