10 Mindfulness Skills for Positive Self-Talk

No matter who you are, where you live, or what you’ve chosen as a career, life can be stressful.

The most successful people in the world have endured tough situations. At somepoint along their journey they made the conscious decision to take control of their lives, take advantage of every opportunity given to them, and change their stories into those of success.

To smash challenges and grab opportunities, we need to build our confidence. We need to improve our mindfulness skills.

If you feel like life is getting the best of you, incorporate some of these mindfulness skills into your daily life to boost your confidence. These confidence boosters will lighten your emotional load and allow you to focus on the positives instead of the negatives.

Confidence opens a brighter outlook on life, which leads to less stress and the ability to recognize opportunities.

If you feel like your confidence is low, don’t worry, it’s not genetic. You’re not destined to always suffer from low self-confidence, but you may have to work harder to overcome that weakness.

Follow these easy tips to boost your self-confidence:

Take care of yourself every single day

Mindfulness skills start with a shower in the morning and continue through the day until you wash your face at night.

Daily hygiene is a symbolic way to wash away the negative mojo from yesterday and start fresh today. Some women also notice a marked difference in their confidence when they add just a little makeup or lip color.

Dress your best

Do you like to work at home in you pajamas? It might sound cozy, but many experts agree that productivity and self-confidence improve when you dress for the day.

One friend told me she did her best work when she wore fancy high-heeled shoes!

You don’t need a full-on business suit to be productive but choose something more business-casual instead of gym clothes or pajamas after your shower.

Be aware of your self-talk

How is your inner ego treating your outer self?

If you overeat at lunchtime or devour an entire box of your favorite cookies, does your inner demon berate you?

Take notice of how you treat yourself when you “fall off the wagon”. Turn that negative self-talk into positive self-talk.

Don’t berate yourself for unbecoming behavior. Use mindfulness skills and turn that into an opportunity to exercise or to meditate instead.

Or take a moment and TALK to yourself out loud with reassuring words.

Take action every day

Nothing occurs in life without action.

Students can’t get an A on a paper or test without studying hard. You can’t balance a checkbook without analyzing your expenses.

You can’t earn a promotion without a strong work ethic. You can’t find new clients without marketing your business.

Go one step further and think positively. This is one of the mindfulness skills which will then carry over into your actions.

Instead of believing you can’t do something, change that into a can-do attitude.

Soon you’ll discover how to find the silver lining in every situation.

Set a small goal and celebrate the win

We need to set goals each day. These may include shopping for groceries, emailing subscribers, or taking time for self care such as exercising. When you accomplish these priorities, celebrate.

Mindfulness skills allow you to enjoy the accomplishment and that lightened feeling they bring!

Go one step further and schedule that goal task for early morning. This allows your accomplished feeling to last throughout your day.

Celebrate with something you enjoy, such as working in your garden, or reading an extra half hour.

Incorporate small habits into your daily life

What could you do with an extra 10 minutes in your day?

One of the most important mindfulness skills is to add tiny habits to your routine. These habits are all about taking small, minute chunks of time and using them wisely.

If you woke up 10 minutes earlier tomorrow, would you meditate, practice yoga, journal, or simply start your daily routine without feeling rushed?

Small habits could be absolutely anything, but the sense of accomplishment will motivate you to do more throughout the day.

This skill goes hand-in-hand with setting small goals. You don’t need to solve the world’s problems but pick something small and dedicate a small amount of time to it.

Soon you’ll link multiple tiny habits together and have a full-fledged productive routine!

Focus on solutions instead of problems

Focusing on problems alone leads to complaining and I’m certain you’ve seen your fair share of complaining on social media. Don’t become one of them!

When something goes wrong, focus on how to fix it. Find alternatives instead of finding someone to blame.

Disappointment or anger over a problem are natural reactions but the key is not to dwell on this negative reaction.

Do what you can to fix the problem and you’ll feel an immediate confidence boost when the problem is resolved (whether you get any credit for being the problem solver or not).

Be grateful

Gratitude is so easy to forget about on a busy day.

While gratitude journaling is one of the popular mindfulness skills these days, practicing gratitude can be as simple as saying, “Thank you for another beautiful day” when you awaken.

Or “Thank you for preventing my getting into an accident” if you have to slam on your brakes.

You can also profess gratitude with a simple phone call or email to special friends, simply thanking them for all the good they bring into your life.

Recalling all that is good in your life can fill your heart with warmth and will also boost your confidence when you realize all your good choices have led you to this place.

Conquer self-limiting beliefs

As the old quote from Henry Ford reads, “Whether you say you can or can’t, you’re right.”

As we grow older, we start to lose confidence in our abilities and those self-limiting beliefs take root in our brains.

To rebuild confidence, tackle each of those beliefs by stepping out of your comfort zone.

More often than not you’ll come away from the experience thinking it wasn’t as bad as you thought it would be. Then you’ll be ready to move on to the next belief!

Gain inspiration from the backstories of people you admire.

We can all use a dose of inspiration nowadays but if you have a celebrity, business person, or author you admire, learn about their lives and how they overcame adversity.

This is not to draw comparisons or to make you feel like you should be further ahead in reaching your goals; to the contrary, this is to inspire you that ANYONE can overcome challenges and still come out with confidence and success.

Looking at their challenges, maybe you’ll realize that YOUR challenges aren’t nearly as bad as you once thought.

Take comfort in knowing that your confidence can be regained.

Give yourself a confidence booster every day with these mindfulness skills as needed until you see your mood lifting and your outlook on life turn more positive.

I’m Kim Nelson, a business owner for more than 20 years of both online and brick & mortar businesses, and a retired 25-year career paramedic. Follow me on Medium.com to read more articles I’ve written.