Dealing with unexplained symptoms? Here are 3 simple ways to boost your confidence
Are you dealing with unexplained symptoms?
Or maybe you are waiting for a diagnosis and it’s taking a lot of time.
You can boost your confidence while you wait for the answers.
In fact, you are not alone in this kind of situation. This is actually very common in the case of complex chronic diseases like autoimmune conditions.
This can often take a toll on our confidence in ourselves and our body’s healing capabilities. We need to create a healing environment in which our bodies can heal and recover. However, a lack of confidence can prevent us from seeking the support that we need for this.
The good news is that you can rebuild your confidence levels. I have shared with you 3 simple ways that you can do this no matter what your current situation is.
Life is filled with all kinds of moments- both good and bad. Few of us will get through an entire lifetime completely free of challenges and stressors. Pain and suffering are an inevitable part of our human experience, of being alive. However, having a chronic condition that consumes our life can make this much worse.
Even so, some people face their failures, health challenges and setbacks and bounce back by responding effectively and decisively.
What helps them do this?
In a word, RESILIENCE.
Living in survival mode
Too many women today are living in survival mode with their bodies constantly stuck in a “fight or flight response“. They are chronically stressed, overwhelmed with a never ending list of things to do and responsibilities. They are unable to prioritise any time for self care.
As a result, rather than switching in and out of survival mode as and when required, they remain stuck. Over time, their bodies become overwhelmed between dealing with this chronic stress and they go on to develop health challenges.
Our bodies and our immune system have not evolved to be stuck in this constant “survival” mode. Being stuck in a “fight or flight” response does not leave much room for our bodies to heal. Addressing the root causes of your condition by supporting your body’s healing and recovery are critical if you want to get better.
True healing starts with listening to your body
By valuing and honouring your body and listening to the messages it shares with you, you find a way to start getting better. However, even after doing this, things can still go wrong, sometimes, very wrong.
And when that happens, we blame and doubt ourselves
How do we typically react when things go wrong with our bodies? How do we react when we feel sick and tired and exhausted all the time?
More often than not we criticise and shame ourselves for not knowing better, for not doing better.
We blame ourselves and others and try to fix things rather than giving ourselves a break.
Instead of tuning into our emotions and how we are feeling at the time, we do anything and everything to avoid feeling pain.
However, when we do this, our emotions hijack our view of our world and can misguide our responses to our life experiences. This can keep us feeling stuck and undermine our confidence and our ability to bounce back from life’s challenges.
Resiliency starts with increasing your self awareness
You can start by increasing your level of self awareness.
Many of us have a mistaken belief that being resilient means being tough. That we become hardened to challenges and less vulnerable to hardships in life.
However, this could not be further from the truth!
Resilience in fact requires flexibility and mental agility. Courage to remain open and vulnerable.
Most importantly, it requires that we really see ourselves with all our imperfections.
This means that we have to see and acknowledge our-
hurt and our pain
imperfections and our unique skills
thoughts and feelings
mistakes and regrets
Resilience requires that we make space for ALL of this with compassion and love.
We realise that we actually deserve to feel better. As a result, we can be more patient and caring with ourselves when we are going through a tough time. In other words, we become RESILIENT!
3 ways to boost your self confidence
These are 3 ways that you can boost your confidence today.
1. Embrace your body with self compassion
Research shows that self compassion is a powerful antidote to body dissatisfaction.
Just a brief period of practicing self compassion can help us accept our bodies with more love and appreciation. You can embrace your body for what it does for you rather than blame it for how it is not working properly. This can help to boost your confidence level in your body’s healing capabilities.
Start by making a list of the following as it relates to your body
- Appreciate all that your body can do.
- Keep a top-ten list of things you like about yourself
- Remind yourself that “true beauty” is not simply skin-deep
- Look at yourself as a whole person
- Surround yourself with positive people
- Wear clothes that are comfortable and that make you feel good about your body
- Become a critical viewer of social and media messages.
2. Acknowledge and celebrate your strengths
Our character strengths reflect who we are truly at our “core“. This is different from our talents, skillsets and our interests.
Strengths practice helps us to become aware of our strengths and the most positive aspects of our personality. We can use those in the best way possible to become the best version of ourselves.
Character strengths are what allow you to live your best life. Scientists have identified 24 strengths that are the basic building blocks of our personality. In other words, each of us possesses all of these 24 strengths but in varying degrees and combinations.
Being aware of and using our character strengths in an intentional manner helps us to flourish in life.
You can find out about your own character strengths using this free survey
3. Clarify your GOALS
Making progress towards personally meaningful goals is can help boost your confidence levels in your ability to get well.
The S.M.A.R.T goals system offers a guideline for goal-setting in which goals are –
SPECIFIC
MEASURABLE
ATTAINABLE
RELEVANT
TIME BOUND
This system is based on research that suggests that these types of goals lead to greater and more consistent achievement. This is the method that all my coaching clients use to set down their health and wellness goals. I work as their accountability partner to help them reach their goals in a way that is sustainable.
Having specific goals and being accountable to someone works as a really effective combination for success.
I have written about why you need to set clear health goals in an earlier post which you can read here.
I have also written about how accountability can help when making healthy choices consistently and you can read that post here.
As you can see, there are ways to you can build your confidence even as you wait for answers regarding your health issues. These are simple but effective ways in which you can start reclaiming your health.
The bottom line is that we can develop a healthy sense of self-confidence over time. However, it is not something that we achieve once and then just have for the rest of our lives. It is a PROCESS that needs to be repeated again and again and again
As Louisa May Alcott had said
“I’m not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship”
“AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE 101”
A carefully curated and comprehensive collection of carefully selected books, podcasts, websites, blogs, and other resources from the field of Functional Medicine with a focus on autoimmune diseases
If have been looking to get ANSWERS to questions like
-Why do I have this disease?
-Will I get any better?
-Can anyone help me? Nothing is working
-Is there any hope for me to get my life back?
-I am still waiting for a diagnosis, which direction do I need to move towards?
then this GUIDE would a game changer for you!
“Autoimmune Disease 101” is a carefully curated and comprehensive collection of carefully selected books, podcasts, websites, blogs, and other resources from the field of Functional Medicine with a focus on autoimmune diseases.
The Functional Medicine model of care for chronic diseases seeks to answer the question “Why do you have this disease” so that you can get personalised and effective care for your unique condition.