Here’s to a Confident Spring

Who is the most confident person you know?

I can’t pick. I know a lot of confident people. My kids, my friends, my yoga instructors, people I’ve worked with. Teachers etc. Confidence is a quality that I’ve always admired. It’s hard not to be inspired by a person moving confidently through an experience especially when it seems challenging .

One thing that was once pointed out to me, is that everyone has confident moments doing things they are comfortable doing. Confidence is more of a state and less of an overall quality. Some people are not comfortable socially, but are confident artists or writers. Catch them doing one thing and they are confident, catch them at something else, not so much.

Is it possible to practice something until we feel comfortable and confident doing it? I think so. I’ve been fooled in the past by cool confident-seeming people, only to find out they were actually insecure and self conscious. Its possible they were faking it until they could make it. Which I think is a good plan.

It helps me feel hopeful if I spend more energy practicing being the me I like myself being, as opposed to wishing I was more confident at things I’m not so confident at yet. I say ‘yet’ because you never know. I’ve grown comfortable doing all sorts of things I didn’t think I could do.

Confident people, I believe, are well practiced. They also see themselves in a positive light. They understand their value without having to have it reinforced. Depending on how you were raised, some of these may not have been practed in your childhood, which is a bummer, but I have to believe that it’s never too late. I’ve learned how to practice them in my later years. Confidence, luckily, isn’t a all or nothing, you have it or you don’t, sort of a thing. Confidence is a state of mind and action. It can be cultivated. We all have things we do confidently, whether it’s our own dishes or driving a car.

We can all practice calm confidence while practicing new actions too. Our elastic brains actually enjoy doing new things. Happy Spring everyone, it’s a good time of year to cultivate some soon to be confident newness.