Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Low Self-Confidence? Try This Amazing Self-Confidence Tip!

By Jon Mercer

Today I want to share an easy self-confidence tip, which affects not only how confident you feel internally, but also causes other people to perceive you as being more confident. This one simple change in your behavior, when used consistently, will have a tremendous impact on your life, though it is the simplest tip imaginable:

Raise your chin up high.

There is no physical attribute that suggests high confidence as much as a raised chin. Try this experiment: stand in front of your bathroom mirror using your usual posture. Observe how you look in the mirror and make a note of how confident you seem to be (or not be) at this moment.

Now walk away from the mirror for just a moment, and adjust your posture so that you are holding your chin MUCH higher than what is normal for you. In fact, hold your chin up so high that it makes you feel slightly awkward (I'll explain why you feel this way and just a moment). Now step back and front of the mirror and observe yourself with your new chin-up posture.

Notice how confident the person in the mirror appears now with their head held high, leading with their chin. Big difference right?

When we lack self-confidence, we tend to subconsciously hold our chin quite a bit lower than is normal. This becomes a habit after a while -- it becomes our base-level physical posture. Because of this habit, you may feel somewhat awkward (and even pretentious) when you first start "leading with your chin," and holding your head up very high. But this is simply because you're not used to it -- nothing more.

Holding your chin up high has two powerful effects:

1. It indicates to others that you have high self-confidence and the self-respect. How can a simple chin raise tell someone so much about you? It's a long story, but mostly it has to do with how human beings have involved, and the symbols that we have learned to accept as shortcuts for certain types of behavior. The bottom-line is, EVERYONE appears to have greater self-confidence when they hold their chin high. No exceptions.

On the other hand, dropping your chin is always an obvious "tell" of low self confidence. And not only does it send signals of low self confidence to others, it sends those same signals to our subconscious mind, causing us to feel it even less confident! It's a type of vicious circle.

2. Holding your chin high can actually make you FEEL more confident. This is the psychological concept of behaviorism. It is a recognized psychological fact that certain physical behaviors change the chemical production within the brain. Standing straight and tall, and poking your chin out is just such a behavior, and by affecting this posture, you will actually cause yourself to feel more confident inside.

The duel affects of the chin-up posture make it one of the easiest ways to simultaneously appear more confident to others, while developing greater feelings of self-confidence within. Obviously, these two affects can feed off of each other as well, creating even more self-confidence and self-worth.

The most important thing to remember about using the chin up posture is to do it every single day. Consistency is the key. Even when you're alone, practice holding your chin MUCH higher than you normally would.

Now, one word of warning: the first few times you go out in public with your chin held high standing straight and tall, you might feel a little awkward -- like you're trying to be something you're not. This can actually cause you to feel self-conscious, and possibly, even less confident than usual. But don't worry; this is extremely common, and nothing to be alarmed about at all.

In fact, go ahead and accept the idea that it could take time for you to adjust to your new chin-up posture, and recognize that you may feel a little uneasy in the beginning. Understand that this uneasiness will pass as the new posture becomes a strong habit -- it won't take long.

Try this challenge: pay attention to the placement of your chin and use the chin-up posture every day for 21 days in a row -- this is how long it takes your subconscious to firmly accept a new habit. After 21 days you will FEEL more self-confident, and you will be PERCEIVED as having higher self-confidence by others. It's a win-win situation!

Self-Confidence can be Developed Easily, and Without Years of Struggle! Discover the Breakthrough Self-Confidence Tip That Will Change Your Life!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jon_Mercer

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