Hi everyone! Welcome to each one of you! While writing the article for this month, my intention has been to incite you to explore and question your own beliefs about the meaning and experience of confidence. My hope is to expand your point of view so that you begin the journey of embracing the full range of being human. The full range includes feeling both insecure and confident. A New Way to Think about Confidence Confidence is at the core of the work that I do through my coaching, writing, and leading of retreats. It has also been the biggest piece of my own personal journey. From my own experience, both professionally and personally, I see that confidence itself is essentially a concept of the mind. Such beliefs as ‘I’m not good enough’, ’something is wrong with me’, ‘nobody loves me’, ‘I’m less than’, “I’m better than you”, “I am always right’, ‘I can do this’ or ‘I have a lot to offer’, all create a frequency, a vibration, an atmosphere that becomes our experience. The mind is a tool that has the potential to be very useful in creatively navigating our way through life. Its brilliance creates beautiful art and architecture, advances our standard of living with technological inventions, allows us to increase our life span, and the list goes on. The mind can also destructively influence the quality of our lives when it interprets, analyzes, compares, and judges our experiences. Instead of directly experiencing life and all of its wonders, we can stay in the arena of the commenting mind about our experiences. Due to old conditioning and habit, all humans suffer from the critical mind. Most important to this exploration, all humans experience moments of confidence as well as moments of insecurity. In my work, people come to me because they feel that they are lacking in confidence. One of the foundational pieces of our work together is that I support them to actually experience what is present without attempting to change or fix that experience in any way. Even though it is not satisfying to the mind, which can be addicted to getting results, it is important to fully experience the feeling of lack, in this case pertaining to confidence. It is only when a lack of confidence is truly and deeply felt that it melts away into Presence. In Presence, there is a natural, effortless confidence that is not fabricated or cultivated. In essence, confidence is our natural state. It is my honor to lead people through this beautiful process. Inner confidence is not about gaining, building, or developing something. When there is a lack of confidence, what is really happening is an inhibition to the natural flow of life. In other words, there are mental blocks that stop us from being who we naturally are at our core. For the sake of clarity about this, think of a spontaneous child who is not worried if people like them or not as they explore their exciting new world. Natural confidence that resides deeply within us when we rest into peace/stillness/spaciousness is always, always present. From this natural state, our gifts flow. And that, in itself, is what makes this inner work most worthwhile. The giving of our gifts with pure freedom and delight enriches all of Life, including our own. Begin to notice when a sense of confidence is present and when it is not. Instead of resisting the discomfort of feeling a lack of confidence, welcome the experience into your heart like you would a child or pet that you love. Simply notice what happens. In the spirit of being complete and not finished, Inner Confidence Coaching supports naturally-giving men and women who Read an overview of my services Call me: 905-228-3047 You're receiving this newsletter because you signed up to receive it. To ensure that you continue to receive emails from us, please add coaching@jeanniecampanelli.com to your address book. |
