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Tag: Positive thoughts – Negative thoughts

Learn to Trust Yourself: 7 Tips to Strengthening Your Self-Confidence

Written by Maria Connolly. Posted in Life Skills, Positive Mindset, Self-Leadership Skills.

Before you can step forward with confidence, you must learn to trust yourself and not doubt or second-guess yourself. Here are 7 ways to learn to trust yourself more“Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.” ~ Golda Meir

I don’t trust myself to ___. With what words would you fill in this blank? …make good decisions? …follow through? …just say no? Before you can step forward with confidence, it’s important to learn to trust yourself, to believe you can do it, because it’s easy to get consumed by second-guessing and doubting yourself, which are key reasons for inaction.

Think about it…what leads you to trust another person? Is your trust earned by one grand gesture? No, it’s the consistent, trustworthy moments you experience that build up a pattern of trust. Likewise, each small moment of self-trustworthiness you experience builds a record you can count on.

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How to Find YOUR Inner Voice and Quiet the Noise

Written by Maria Connolly. Posted in Life Skills, Mindfulness, Self-Leadership Skills.

Learn how to mindfully, and joyfully, find your inner voice, by assessing and controlling your thoughts, while quieting the unhelpful voices of others.“Somewhere in there, among the worries, questions, advice and advertising jingles, lives your intuition, your true ‘inner voice.’ You can hear it to the extent that you give it your attention.” ~ Martha Beck

There are times when I still hear my mother’s voice in my head. That’s not surprising since she’s been there my whole life. Sometimes I find her voice helpful; sometimes that voice is trying to keep me safe and not take risks. Over the years, the voices of authority — parents, teachers, mentors — became part of my inner voice, and they weren’t always speaking MY truth. This illustrates why it’s so important to know how to find YOUR inner voice — and learn to listen to it and trust it. Then you’ll be able to quiet the noise from everyone else.

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The Ultimate Meaning of Life Reveals Itself if You Listen

Written by Maria Connolly. Posted in Life Skills, Self-Leadership Skills.

You can find your ultimate meaning in life by mindfully listening for what life asks of you as each challenge, opportunity, and crisis comes your way.“The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be. Being alive is the meaning.” ~ Joseph Campbell

After suffering a severe crisis, people often contemplate the ultimate meaning of life. After surviving the holocaust, Victor Frankl wrote Yes to Life: In Spite of Everything. After a different pandemic claimed two of her children, Mary Shelley wrote The Last Man which explored what makes life worth living. Walt Whitman wrote of this same question, after he suffered a paralyzing stroke.

These people knew suffering intimately. They didn’t try to forget. They didn’t try to pretend it never happened. They didn’t become embittered. Each one emerged from their crisis, with a valuable gift for the world. After allowing themselves time to fully experience their life, including the pain, they derived a sense of meaning from it. Then they bared their souls and we benefit today from their insights.

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Overcoming Imposter Syndrome with Curiosity

Written by Maria Connolly. Posted in Positive Mindset.

Overcoming imposter syndrome takes nonjudgmental curiosity to mindfully examine and explore your thoughts, emotions and reactions to learn from them.Do you sometimes feel like you’re not what other people think you are, that you’ve got them fooled, that they’re not seeing how limited you are? When insecurities and self-doubt trigger these thoughts, it’s a phenomenon known as imposter syndrome and many highly successful people have experienced it. The good news is overcoming imposter syndrome takes an attitude of curiosity. Really, could it be so simple? 

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It’s Good to Be YOU: How to Feel Whole in a World of Conformity

Written by Maria Connolly. Posted in Self-Leadership Skills, Stepping Forward.

It's Good to Be YOU: Here’s how you can feel whole in a world of conformity “The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.” ~ Carl Gustav Jung

“You wouldn’t like me, if you knew the real me.” I couldn’t believe it when Katie, one of my clients, said this during a session! She’s a beautiful woman inside and out. Yet, she felt ugly and unlovable. Some past experiences had caused her to develop negative thoughts and feelings about herself and her worth. She’d become a master at blending in, conforming to what other people found comfortable. It took a lot of work for her to accept my words, “It’s Good to be YOU”!

We live in a society that prides itself on being open-minded and accepting of differences. It’s the subject of headlines, talk shows, movies, books. Yet why is it so necessary to call attention to it, if it really exists? If we are truly open-minded and accepting, it would be the norm, not newsworthy.

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