To begin,
Become physically still wherever you are,
Either lying,
Sitting,
Or standing.
Choose a posture where you'll be as comfortable as possible,
And lightly close your eyes.
Bring your awareness to whatever is going on for you right now.
Give the weight of your body up to gravity,
Allowing your weight to sink in to the points of contact between your body and the floor,
The chair,
The bed,
The cushion.
What sensations are there right now,
Appearing to your awareness?
If you notice any tension or resistance towards painful or unpleasant sensations,
Gently turn towards them.
Accept them as best you can.
If you begin to tense around the breath,
Then let go a little bit more with each out-breath,
Mix more,
Release more,
Soften into gravity.
Notice any thoughts as they arise and pass through the mind.
See if you can let them come and go without needing to identify or follow their content.
Observe them as if they were clouds in the sky.
Notice any feelings and emotions as they arise.
Can you let these come and go?
Include everything within your awareness with a kind,
Calm,
Non-conceptual perspective.
In this practice,
We're going to restore feelings of confidence,
Turning our self-criticism into self-confidence.
Our confidence and our self-esteem may have been negatively impacted over time.
Usually as we move through difficult circumstances and get to this stage in our path,
We have an even deeper appreciation for our own abilities,
Our inner resourcefulness.
But challenges can leave their mark on our confidence,
Our attitude,
Our relationships and our behavior long after the challenge has passed.
Over time,
You may have developed the tendency to over-monitor everything in your experience,
Focusing in on the negative.
This self-critical mind fixates again and again on small,
Specific details about us or events from our past.
It exaggerates them,
Labels them as truth,
And comes up with thoughts of unworthiness,
Of not being good enough.
But this is a biased view.
It does not account for the whole story,
And this biased view is unhealthy if we're not balancing it out by remembering that 99% of the time we're actually okay.
We are good enough.
We have achieved so much.
Look at the hurdles that we've overcome in our life to reach this point.
Think of the challenges you've overcome.
The difficulties you've had.
And you've made it to this point,
And it's amazing when we look back and think of how difficult we thought it was,
And how we thought we'd never get past that moment,
But you did.
And in this present moment,
And every present moment,
You're okay.
Everything is okay.
Let's acknowledge that we have this unconscious habit,
The self-critical mind.
We acknowledge its presence,
But without letting it take over,
It is trying to protect us,
But we're listening to the story,
We're identifying with the thoughts,
And these thoughts,
While well-intentioned,
They're undermining our confidence.
And in our current state,
Right here,
Right now,
We are a-okay.
So allow your awareness to just rest in the present moment,
This perfect,
Beautiful moment.
By opening up to,
And bringing mindfulness to all of the positive states of being throughout your day,
Those moments where everything is just fine,
Things are going well,
There are no fires to fight,
By opening up and being mindful of these moments,
Our sense of self-confidence will grow,
Bit by bit,
Drop by drop,
Until the bucket of self-confidence is full and embodied.
So here it is,
This moment,
And in this moment you are confident.
You're keeping in mind everything you have achieved,
And you are successful.
Allow your primordial consciousness,
This calm,
Peaceful,
Loving,
Joyful,
Open awareness,
Allow it to shine through.
The more you open up to your sense of being okay in this moment,
Moment by moment,
The more your nervous system will relax,
The more calm,
Cool,
And collected you will feel,
And the more internal resources you will feel are available to you,
Things like creativity,
Problem solving,
Motivation.
With a calm mind you can tap into these tools by being mindfully present,
By detaching from the self-critical thoughts,
By bringing mindfulness to more and more moments of safety,
Health,
Happiness and peace,
You will automatically increase the self-confidence within you,
And feel more confident about others.
So rest in this present moment,
This amazing,
Calm moment where nothing is wrong,
And remember to come and find it whenever you need it.
As you.
.
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