Self Confidence - Believe in Yourself

By John Cowell

Self confidence is critical, here's how to believe in yourself and your songwriting today with a lesson from Songwriter Hall Of Fame inductee Hugh Prestwood.

I attended a seminar where Hugh Prestwood gave a songwriting lesson and an explanation of his process of songwriting. Every songwriter is different and each has unique processes to write with.

Hugh is a very successful writer who usually takes three to four weeks to write a song. He usually doesn't co-write. Many pro songwriters write many more songs than that. Question always is how many great songs?

He described how he wrote and produced his demos in his home studio. However he also had some very interesting comments about self doubt.

He explained that often he would go through a stage in a song's development where he would doubt the song and his ability to write. He also said this is a normal part of the process.

A light went on for me! Its normal to feel self doubt about songwriting!. It was like a huge load off my mind. Here I thought it was just me that had those feelings. When I thought about it, it made me laugh. Seems pretty straight forward but I hadn't realized it.

Do you have periods where you doubt your songwriting ability and feel like its hopeless? Do you ever feel you should just admit that you're not a great writer and just get on with a normal life. Well now you can relax. It's normal and part of the process.

Hugh also said something else that rang true with me. He indicated that in addition there were times he felt like he was a hot songwriter and he would finish a song and listen to it over and over again. Just wallow in his creation.

Have you ever played your song over and over again? So many times that it's embarrassing to admit your wallowing habits to your family and friends? Guess what? I think that is normal too.

Life goes in circles, so does your songwriting and how you feel about it. Understanding that self doubt cycles occur and not getting upset about it is freeing.

Your self confidence has mood swings so don't worry about it anymore! Just try to enjoy all you can and keep writing.

John Cowell is self proclaimed songwriting addict. His fresh approach to songwriting tips and advice will have you saying "Ah-Ha" over and over again. To get simple and terrific ideas on how to write great songs visit his website http://www.greatsongwriting.com

To learn how to build your dream web site and web business like John did, go to http://www.greatsongwriting.com/sbi-tv.html

It's easier than you think!

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

What is Self-Confidence?

By Julia Barnard

‘If I have lost confidence in myself, I have the universe against me.’ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Confidence is about believing in yourself, giving you the courage to go for your goals. As such, assertiveness is a valuable component of a self-confident person. To reach your goals you need to be able to go for what you want. Tied in with this is having an optimistic outlook. Self-confidence is also about liking yourself and being able to take personal responsibility. Furthermore, having confidence is not about belittling or treading on the needs of others. It is a sure sign of a confident person that they are able to see the good in other people, and support and encourage them without feeling jealous or defensive.

Consider each of these elements and perhaps work on those aspects you feel you have most difficulties with. Without self-confidence, life becomes that much tougher.

Believing in yourself

With confidence, you believe you can succeed. You create goals which you expect to achieve. By believing in yourself it empowers you to relish a challenge and puts you in a position where you can cope with situations. Such self-support is very empowering and motivating. You cannot always rely on other people to say the right things, so self-belief is vital.

Assertiveness

Assertiveness is about being able to stand up for what you believe in. You are able to stand by your decision without giving in to others at the slightest hint that things may get awkward. If you can assert your needs, you will have reduced stress, as you will not feel disappointed in yourself. You will be able to enjoy life, knowing you are taking an active role in it.

Optimistic about the future

Confident people are able to recognise that when bad things happen there is a way out. Just because life isn’t so great right now, does not mean it always will be. Difficulties are regarded as challenges to be overcome. With confidence, a person is able to get up again and keep trying, rather than just giving up. With an optimistic outlook a person is able to accept and embrace the good things that happen. They do not put it down to luck or expect them to be fleeting.

Liking yourself

You really should like yourself. An important ingredient for self-confidence is the realisation of how valuable a person you are. Try to be reasonable with and fair to yourself. Sometimes we treat ourselves worse than our biggest enemy. As such, you should be able to forgive yourself. If things go wrong, it is not the end of the world. Focus on your actions, rather than let it undermine who you are.

Personal responsibility

Having confidence enables you to take responsibility for your life. You are able to recognise how much you are in charge of your thoughts and actions. You do not need to blame others when things go wrong. Instead you are able to dust yourself down and get on with things. Furthermore, you are not bound up with the past and use it as a reason for inaction in your present. Taking responsibility also allows you to recognise your achievements as yours, rather than attributing them to luck or the actions of other people.

Other people

With confidence you feel good enough about yourself that you are able to see the good in others. You do not feel the need to put other people down and try to undermine them. Instead you are able to support them and celebrate their achievements, without envy or comparison with yourself.

To boost your confidence, you want positive people in your life. Those that make you feel good about yourself. Although most of the work comes from within, you want friends that appreciate you rather than are disparaging you all the time.

Copyright Julia Barnard 2007

Julia Barnard is a professional counsellor living in Adelaide, Australia. She provides an online counselling service through her website http://www.makethechange.com.au. Julia also writes articles for the website aimed at enhancing wellbeing and promoting good mental health.

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

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

Is it Possible to Retrain Your Brain and Improve Self Confidence?

By

There are lots of techniques and products that claim to be able to retrain your brain and improve self-confidence. But is there any clear evidence that it is possible to affect your subconscious and fundamentally change the way you feel about yourself?

I've been a personal development coach for pretty long time now, so I've obviously come into contact with many people desiring to make changes in their life. And one of the most common and fundamental changes a person can make is to improve their self-confidence.

One technique that claims to be able to improve self-confidence is affirmations. Affirmations are probably the easiest of all personal development techniques to employ. They simply require you to repeat -- or affirm -- positive statements to yourself. Research has shown that when used on a daily basis, affirmations can have some effect on self-confidence. However, this technique can take a very long time to show results, and in many cases, those results can be minimal.

Another technique to retrain your brain for increased self-confidence is to use self hypnosis. Hypnosis bypasses the critical conscious mind, to present commands or "suggestions" to the subconscious mind. Research on hypnosis suggests that approximately 55 to 60% of all individuals can be hypnotized, so while this technique can be useful to many people, it is by no means a fool-proof solution.

Self hypnosis in particular is difficult to assess as a meaningful way to improve self-confidence. Again, research suggest that self hypnosis can be useful for a wide range of issues, including calming fears and anxieties, and building greater self-esteem and confidence, though again, not everyone is likely to benefit from this technique.

Still another method of "mental reprogramming" is the use of subliminal suggestions. While there is much controversy about the effectiveness of subliminal commands and suggestions, several recent studies indicate that subliminal messages are both registered and understood by the subconscious mind.

The University of Bethlehem in Israel recently conducted subliminal research wherein participants were randomly shown subliminal images of either the Israeli or Palestine flag. The results of this research clearly indicate that subjects who had been exposed to the subliminal flag images altered their political points of view depending on which flag was used.

Follow-up research suggested that being shown the subliminal flag image could even cause the participants to change their voting behavior in the Israeli general election. This and other similar studies suggest that, not only are subliminal suggestions and symbols clearly understood, but they also have the power to change both attitude and behavior. While more research is necessary, the current studies suggest there is the potential to "retrain" states of mind and behavior through the use of subliminal suggestions and symbology.

Finally, one increasingly popular method to improve confidence is to use a "Gestalt" approach, which incorporates all of the above techniques and more in an attempt to "overwhelm" the subconscious mind with a deluge of new information. While there is little formal research on the effectiveness of this "all-inclusive" method of retraining the human brain, anecdotal evidence suggests that this may likely be the best approach.

The "Gestalt" method of overwhelming the subconscious mind is actually quite similar to brainwashing. The only difference being that the individual is in control of the process, and is basically attempting to brainwash themselves.

Overall, there isn't enough empirical evidence to say with certainty how effective any of these methods may be to improve self confidence, though it stands to reason that using a multi-faceted approach to "retrain your brain" is likely to produce the best results.
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