Confidence can bring many benefits throughout your recovery journey and contribute to success in life. Unfortunately, when you are overcoming hardships and trauma, gaining confidence can be a difficult task.
What Does Confidence Look Like?
There are many negative options about confidence as it is often confused with arrogance. However, confidence as a powerful, positive tool functions very differently from arrogant behavior.
To become more confident, it is important to understand what confidence looks like and how it can be a positive force. Confidence involves the act of self-acceptance. This means accepting your mind, body, skills, and abilities realistically. You have likely met individuals who appear confident in themselves and in their abilities who are very likable individuals. Even when they are not extremely talented or the best in the group, their positive charisma can be enticing.
Arrogance is exaggerated confidence. It involves seeing unrealistic greatness in one’s abilities, especially by comparing oneself with others. Individuals who act arrogant often pretend to be the best at something or work to portray themselves in an extremely positive way that is often untruthful. These actions can lead to distrust in relationships as well as negative self-emotions, as you are not able to live up to the unrealistic expectations you have set. Setting realistic expectations for yourself and being happy with who you are and your ability to improve can help you gain confidence and avoid arrogance.
The Benefits of Confidence
Developing a sense of confidence can benefit your recovery journey in many ways. As shown by the differences between confidence and arrogance, confidence allows you to have a set of clear and achievable expectations for yourself. Confidence helps you look at your strengths and weaknesses realistically. This allows you to create goals to improve areas of weakness. It also helps you appreciate your strengths as they are.
Confidence can promote a sense of self-worth, improving your body image and overall view of yourself. It is easy to develop negative emotions and thoughts toward yourself through the process of recovery, as you are forced to face the darkest aspects of yourself. Confidence can help you overcome these emotions and create a sense of stability that can empower you to work through these hardships. Remember: you are so much more than your past.
Having confidence not only can benefit you, but it can also help you empower others. Nearly everyone in recovery goes through a stage of dismissal, assuming they are incapable of getting through the process. By talking with a confident individual who has been through recovery, you can see the light at the end of the tunnel. After recovery, your confidence can influence the success of another individual who is working toward recovery.
How to Gain Confidence
Using the following techniques, you can work your way into a state of confidence that you can use to your benefit in recovery.
#1 Practice Self-Care
Implementing self-care practices is highly recommended throughout any treatment process. Self-care helps keep you grounded and in a healthy state of mind. By practicing self-care, you are treating yourself with the respect you deserve and reinforcing that you are worth time, attention, and health.
Through self-care, you reinforce the positive aspects of yourself. Recognizing these aspects can help you feel more comfortable and confident in yourself.
#2 Be Goal-Oriented
By maintaining a goal-oriented focus, you can keep yourself on a path to success. Try accomplishing a task you have been putting off, engaging in activities you excel in, taking care of your needs, and rewarding yourself for your successes.
By engaging in these practices, you can feel a sense of accomplishment. This often leads to the development of confidence, as you are creating more opportunities for self-satisfaction.
#3 Create Positive Surroundings
Your surroundings can greatly impact your success in recovery. Engaging with individuals who help you feel good about yourself, decorating your living space to create a homelike feeling, and engaging in actions that help you feel positive, such as complimenting a stranger, are all great ways to create positivity within your surroundings.
As you create a positive environment for yourself, you will feel more comfortable showing signs of confidence and being your true self.
Using Confidence in Recovery
Once you have established some level of confidence, the benefits will begin to shine through. Confidence can be used in recovery to reinforce your belief that you can get through this process. When times of doubt arise, your confidence can be used to keep yourself motivated. It can be easy to get side-tracked in recovery and develop a sense of self-doubt. Keeping your confidence strong, you can bounce back quickly from these doubts and continue your success.
Confidence can be used in the world outside of treatment to help you establish supportive relationships as well. When you lose sight of your goals and struggle to maintain your sobriety, these relationships can remind you of your abilities and help you regain the confidence to continue. Allow yourself to feel confident in the positive attributes you have and be proud of who you are.
During the recovery process, many individuals experience feelings of blame and a lack of self-worth. Being in treatment can bring up these feelings, as recovery comes with a variety of negative stigmas. By developing a sense of confidence, you can overcome these negative thoughts and view yourself in a positive light. Confidence goes a long way in recovery. It can be used to keep you on a successful path and help you create healthy relationships and overcome obstacles that arise throughout the process. Developing confidence is not an easy task, but it can be achieved through some simple steps. Practice self-care, focus on your goals, and create a positive environment for yourself to thrive in. Appreciate the accomplishments you have achieved and give yourself credit for the skills you have acquired. To learn more about the power of confidence in recovery, reach out to Dream Recovery at (949) 732-1960.