How to Build Your Self Confidence - Positive Affirmations for Women

Women love to feel good and be appreciated for who they are. You know the feeling when your boss praises you for doing a good job, or when a man adores you for looking good. Fundamentally, we all want to feel good about ourselves. But what about those incidences when we've been hurt? When someone passed a hurtful comment, or we failed at something? Those are the times when negative thoughts and beliefs about ourselves may have been formed. Lets explore how you can use positive affirmations to build self confidence. You can use these affirmations to feel more secure about yourself and feel good from within.

What are some positive affirmations for women?

I love being a womanI love my bodyI rejoice in my femalenessMy body is doing the best it can now

If love feels like a word that is too strong for now, use the word appreciate or enjoy. You may not feel like you can love your body yet, but starting to appreciate it is a good start.

Appearances affect your self confidence

A woman's appearance can really affect her confidence level. The media bombards us with images of what is 'perfect' and then we inadvertently compare ourselves with that. If we believe what they show us is the only form of being beautiful, and we look different from that, then we may start to form certain negative views about the way we look. Over time, negative thoughts and beliefs about ourselves limit us and create fear in our lives. We start to become fearful of being who we really are inside.

How can positive affirmations help?

Positive affirmations help to improve your self image by changing the way you look and think about your appearance. The fundamental basis of using positive affirmations is that we create our thoughts and beliefs in life. These thoughts and beliefs then shape our responses to anything that happens. We need to understand that events in themselves have no meaning, only the interpretations we give to it. So if we have chosen hurtful thoughts such as 'I am ugly' in the past, we can just as easily choose to change them into 'I am beautiful'.

I used to have an unrealistic ideal of looking like Kate Moss when in fact, I may never reach that goal. Comparing myself to super models, celebrities and even prettier girls in school, I felt that I was ugly and undesirable. It was worse when people remarked about my looks and unconsciously scarred me even more. It made me fearful to express myself.

Positive affirmations help change your negative thought patterns and habitual responses into more positive and self loving ones. The key is to notice when a negative thought comes up. Ask yourself if the thought makes you feel good. If it doesn't, choose a better one by turning it around.

What if it's not working?

Sometimes, you strongly believe and identify with thoughts and ideas that you have held on to for a long time. While those thoughts may have served you in the past, you can let them go and choose new ones that nourish you. You are an amazing individual with intelligence, beauty and wisdom. Seek to find confidence from within by believing in yourself and trusting that you are worthy and beautiful.

Sueyan Lim Shuyan has been working with positive affirmations for 5 years. She shares her wisdom on changing habitual thought patterns and responses into self loving ones. Loving yourself and letting your true self shine is an ongoing choice to do so. Click here to find out more ways you can positively encourage yourself to feel like the worthy and deserving individual you are.

Let me share with you how to let your true self shine no matter what anyone says. My sister and I help individuals love themselves more and more at our website http://www.prosperitysistersbeasyness.com/

Original article

A Call to Women: Choose Self Love

As women, we are taught to spend our lives worshiping and paying attention to the external world, concentrating more on physical aspects and appearances, always focusing on what's on the outside. By doing this, we are trying to win the approval of men, thus losing our identity and becoming dependent on men. When our lives depend on men, we stop doing what works for us, what brings us satisfaction and we are very unhappy.

When we do not develop our inner identity, when we don't feel good about ourselves, we turn into erotic objects. We see the man as prey we must attract and, with that purpose in mind, waste time and the powerful and valuable energy that we could be investing in getting to know ourselves.

Women are endowed with the power of creation. We are able to give life and overcome enormous obstacles to do so. This powerful inner strength we possess and use to give birth is precisely what we can use to create and develop ourselves as individuals.

When we begin thinking on our own terms, seeking the answers within and stop depending on the opinion of others, we find the power and wisdom inherent to our gender.

Many times our emotional connection with our surroundings does not allow us to see the whole picture, and we perceive events as problems instead of realizing that they truly are opportunities to grow and develop.

In order to face the challenges that inevitably come our way in life, we must stop concentrating on the outside and instead develop our great inner strength using more unique, creative and personal criteria.

Our true strength resides in our ability to love and accept ourselves just as we are. Inside ourselves, we can find the answers we seek and the solutions to all our problems. We can find our true happiness.

To reach our maximum potential, it is important to wake up and free ourselves from the limiting social mandate indicating that it is our duty to multiply the species and sacrifice our own wellbeing to properly care for our children.

We have been repeating this false belief for so long that it now rings true. The time has now come to realize that sacrifice does not work because, when we do things for others and we are unhappy, others aren't happy either.

In fact, a woman who cannot sincerely love and care for herself cannot truly love and care for others because she is empty and has nothing to give. We can only give unconditionally, with true love, when we are full. When women are okay, everybody is okay.

We cannot continue to focus on keeping up appearances in order to catch a man and have children. Limiting our existence to these purposes turns us into slaves and makes us very unhappy. We can be as queens, but we must choose to be dependent. We can't blame anybody else for our unhappiness: we have decided to believe that this is our role in society and that we "need" to capture a man and have children in order to have a place in the world.

In truth, appearances are fleeting and temporary. They do not satisfy the soul. By placing so much importance on appearances, we live in the shadow of the world outside of us, limited and bitter. Our beauty might be striking but, unless we are strong and beautiful on the inside, we will never be happy and satisfied. By seeking our true value in the wrong place, we become unable to fulfill our true purpose in this life.

Once and for all, we must realize the damage we are inflicting, not only on ourselves but also on our children and the world. When we go along and maintain a passive attitude with social pressures to focus on the physical, it destroys more than it builds.

I am not talking about the women's liberation that leads to strong competition with men, which we mistakenly imposed on ourselves and caused the pain of competition. I am talking about the inner development and appreciation that will help us accept and respect the men in our lives because, as we learn to value ourselves, we will become able to acknowledge the value of men instead of competing with them. There are no competitors on the outside.

We must support each other. In reality, people treat and appreciate us as we treat and appreciate ourselves.

Our role in this time of great change is fundamental. Change can begin with us. Men are here to complement and support us. It is useless to continue seeing them as enemies or putting them on a pedestal. We are both just as valuable, each with specific talents, qualities, and challenges.

The world will change when we change, because happy women raise happy children, and happy children can create a better world.

It all depends on us!

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You'll find more about practicing Ho'oponopono to improve your life at http://www.hooponoponoway.com/. Be sure to leave a comment on the blog.

Original article

The Best Affirmations For Women

Women are often their own harshest task masters and take their responsibilities seriously, especially when children are involved. They are often the hub of the family and so will usually tell themselves to keep going, take a break later, other people's needs are more important. In a work environment they are frequently all too aware of the need to prove their competency and dedication. The ability to find a balance in life is difficult to navigate.

Affirmations are about the way we talk to ourselves. We may come to realise that we talk to ourselves negatively, and as such reinforce low expectations and self belief. We may use positive affirmations that other people suggest but find that they sit uncomfortably with us. Selecting the most appropriate affirmations for ourselves and our lifestyles is an important step to take.

The important thing about affirmations is that they have to sit well with the person who is saying them. Affirmations need to be phrased in the present tense and resonate well when they are being said. So an affirmation is not about negating another person and their importance. It is more about acknowledging that if we are well and happy then the other people in our lives benefit and get the best from us. We become more positive and satisfied in our roles.

Affirmations about our body:
Many women struggle with the way they feel about their body, especially when they are naked or after childbirth. Learning to love ourselves, imperfections included is a tough exercise to undertake. Appreciating that our body is a testament to who we are today is an important step in the process. Childbirth, surgery, stress and life all take their toll on our bodies but that story is an important part of who we are today. Affirmations that include the phrase 'I am learning to like myself', or 'I am becoming more accepting of myself and my body' can acknowledge that we are moving towards feeling more positive and are starting to feel better about ourselves.

Affirmations within the family:
Many women juggle several roles and often feel guilty about neglecting their family because of the compromises that they have to make to maintain their various roles. Deciding that an important step would be to delegate and allow others to shoulder some responsibility could be a way to ease the burden, but it can cause feelings of guilt to occur. There is often a feeling of letting others down or falling short as a mother if the family are expected to help. Affirmations which acknowledge that it is a positive step to allow others to help can start to change that perspective.

Affirmations at work:
Women are often all too aware of the difficulties of balancing the demands of home and work. They are conscious that many work environments require women to be especially competent and this means that there is often a struggle to do more, achieve more and continuously prove how committed they are. Affirmations for work can include taking the pressure off, relieving stress and allowing enough to be sufficient. Affirmations like 'I am enough. What I do is enough.' said regularly and with feeling can help to ease the stress of the situation.

Becoming aware of the role that positive self talk plays in shaping our mindset and self-esteem can enable better confidence and a more beneficial outlook to occur. Positive affirmations can enable women to view themselves and their role with a more healthy perspective. Being kinder in the way we talk to ourselves is an important step towards this goal.

Susan Leigh is a Counsellor and Hypnotherapist who works with stressed individuals to promote confidence and self belief, with couples in crisis to improve communications and understanding and with business clients to support the health and motivation levels of individuals and teams.

Further help, advice and articles are available.

For more information see http://www.lifestyletherapy.net/

Original article