Confidence doesn’t come from clothes or makeup. For most of the my life, I believed the opposite of that. I thought wearing a rocking outfit and a super cool makeup look was the epitome of confidence. But it’s not.
Confidence doesn’t have anything to do with what you’re wearing. As cheesy as it sounds, it really is all about what’s on the inside. If you feel good about yourself and your life, that radiates outward.
I also used to equate confidence with watching people walk. I know that sounds weird, but bear with me. I used to watch people walk and be envious of how confidence radiated out from them. I often walked with my head down, or at least my eyes, and I tried to take up a little space as possible.
Needless to say, that’s no longer the case anymore. I don’t care about how much space I’m taking up. I deserve to take up space, and I have the confidence now to fight for it.
I can tell I walk really differently now than even a few months ago. I have some swagger, as the youths say, and I’m proud of it. I’m finally, truly happy with myself and my body, but it was a very long time coming.
Cutting nine inches off my hair went a lot way towards helping my confidence skyrocket, but I noticed the initial confidence wore off after a few weeks. I was in a slump for a while, and I had a hard time figuring out how to get that confidence back.
Then it hit me: it comes from within yourself. Doing something drastic to my hair provided a temporary confident boost, but it wore off after time. If I really wanted to embody being confident, I had some more inner work to do.
So I started journaling more, reading more and just being present and mindful more. I checked in with myself multiple times a day to figure out how I was feeling and what was causing negative moods when they popped up. As I did this more and more, I noticed my confidence returning ten-fold.
Being confident is really all about your inner self. Are you truly happy? What would make you truly happy? What can you change or embrace on the path to happiness?
That’s how I got my confidence back, and I know it’s not a fluke that’ll disappear this time. I feel confident in my heart and soul, and it’s because I’ve done a lot of inner work and reflection.
So I can proudly say I don’t watch other people walk anymore and think about how I can emulate them. I just do me, and the rest is history.
Photo by sydney Rae on Unsplash
