But first, what exactly is fear and where does it come from?

One of the best acronyms I have come across for fear is, “False Expectations Appearing Real!” Or,  “Face Everything And Rise!”

Fear has been a major influence throughout most of my life. I was pretty much a high-introvert for most of my childhood and adolescent years. I was so afraid of being rejected by my peers at school that I found it easier to blend into the background and do my best to stay invisible.

Obviously, this didn’t always work so I frequently found myself at the mercy of bullies both at school and outside of school just to remind me of how much fear ruled my life. I didn’t know it then but this fear was a gift, and this gift sent me on a life-transforming journey of self-discovery.

In order for me to conquer my fear I had to first become aware of how I was creating it and why it was so crippling for me. As I dove into learning about fear, where it comes from, how it works and what created the triggers I started to ask different questions.

The question I had been asking was… why am I so afraid? When the real question I needed to ask was… how can I turn fear into power?

It didn’t take long though before I understood that fear is both real and imagined. It is real in a sense that when we are afraid our body goes into fight, flight or freeze mode. This happens whether the fear is imminent danger or just in our head.

The chemical response in the body is the same regardless of whether our fear is real or imagined. Your adrenaline starts pumping, heart starts beating faster and breathing gets shorter and faster. Interestingly, this is also the same physiological response that happens to our body when we are under excess stress.

Most people spend their lives imagining that the worst is going to happen. They live in fear of the future and worry about things that may or may not ever happen. At the same time, they tend to hold back from saying and doing what they really want out of fear of being judged and not approved.

When I started to realize that this was how I had been living – the penny dropped. All of a sudden the words that appeared in my head and which I felt all through my body as strength were… that’s enough!

I’d had enough of tip toeing through life trying not to be seen or judged. I’d had enough of allowing fear to control my destiny. I’d also certainly had enough of being afraid to live a much fuller life.

That’s when I decided to walk towards my fears instead and confront them consciously from the front. To help with this, I studied martial arts to strengthen my body. I read personal development books and went to workshops to strengthen my mind, and I studied meditation to strengthen my connection to spirit.

It didn’t take long before fear was no longer an issue for me. In fact, I had conquered a myriad of fears such as:

• Fear of flying
• Fear of heights
• Fear of being alone
• Fear of the dark
• Fear of being bullied
• Fear of failure
• and so many more

I knew that either I mastered fear or it would keep mastering me. I had learned where it came from and what triggered it withing me and how 99% of all my fears were imagined. I then took this information and retrained my brain to associate fear with power.

It wasn’t that I didn’t feel fear anymore, it’s that I knew how to recognize what could potentially cause me harm or damage versus what was just imagined. If it was a real threat then I had a choice to so something about it. If it was imagined, then I just need to take a few slow, deep breaths, re-center myself and walk towards it.

Now that I am able to look at fear from the inside-out, rather than the outside-in it has been a much easier transition to work with it to have a happier, healthier and more fulfilling life.

I now look at fear as an opportunity to grow and let go of limiting beliefs and habit that are holding me back from stepping up in all areas of my life.

The real gift of fear is the preparation you need to overcome what’s in front of you and the courage that you develop as you step towards it.

Fear is actually quite practical but you can’t change the way you approach it if you aren’t aware of what you’re afraid of.

If in doubt, ask yourself this…where am I letting fear hold me back in both business or life and what can I do today to face it? Just by asking yourself different questions about fear instantly changes the relationship you have with it from one of powerlessness to empowering.

Leave me a comment below. Let me know what fears you have identified and what you did to turn fear into power.

I have a slightly different slant on confidence these days. You see, in the past, I used to think that it was a skill of some sort that I needed to get better at… a bit like training your muscles at the gym. The more you work them, the stronger they get. But I found that I was looking in the wrong direction.

Let me explain.

There are two types of confidence that I have come across. The first comes from the knowledge that you are good at something like the work you do, a hobby, or something that you have no doubt you are good at.

This type of confidence is what I call ‘experiential confidence’. It comes from that part of you that is connected to your ego which feels comfortable around a particular role, task, or behavior.  The challenge with this type of confidence is that it belongs solely to the mind and the mind is influenced by so many factors.

One of those factors can be a change in circumstances. Many years back I had an experience where I lost complete confidence in my ability to find work or make money after I was unexpectedly retrenched from my high paying job. It took me several months to recover from this experience, yet one simple thing like losing my job had basically destroyed my so-called flamboyant and happy-go-lucky personality.

In reality, my confidence had not gone anywhere. It was still fully functioning and waiting patiently inside me for me to acknowledge it. The only reason that I didn’t experience it was because my mind was now stuck in a spiral of fear, instead of its usual state of calm and balance. That’s how powerful the mind is.

That brings me to the second type of confidence which is by far the most powerful and also the hardest to lose. In fact, once you master this level of confidence you’ll never doubt yourself again. Best of all, it doesn’t belong to the mind – it belongs to you.

So, how does it work?

The best way I can explain this is to talk about self-worth. If you believe that you are fundamentally okay as a human being and you know in every cell of your body that you deserve to happy, healthy, and fulfilled, then your self-worth is intact. If you don’t, then your self-confidence will most likely only ever be superficial at best.

Wherever you lack self-worth, that’s where you’ll find that a lack of confidence appears in your life. The good news though is that when you increase your self-worth, then your confidence automatically increases.

Self-Confidence Made Simple

So how exactly do you increase your self-worth so that you value yourself more than you currently do?

That’s the simple part. You focus more on what’s right about you, than what you believe to be wrong with you. If you spend twice as much time reminding yourself that you love and approve of yourself regardless of what’s going on in your life, then you will double your confidence in no time flat.

I used to think that because I was fit, strong, healthy, had a good job, and had great friends that these things helped with my confidence. But when I lost all those things and all I had left was stress and anxiety I knew that my idea about confidence was a fraud.

Once this dawned on me I knew I had to start looking for the truth about what confidence was really made up of.  This simple shift in focus helped me to get started on the most empowering journey of my life.

Before I knew it I’d spent a bunch of time and money on personal development programs, seminars, workshops, books, and retreats. As a result, it became crystal clear to me that all my self-confidence issues were limiting or negative beliefs that I had given power to since I was born.

Once I understood this, then the solution became obvious. I just needed to stop giving my power away to old patterns of thinking and feeling, and the way to do that was to make friends with those parts of me that lived in doubt and fear.

I did this by doing 20 minutes a day of mindful meditation. The focus of my meditation was to just sit and watch whatever thoughts and emotions that came up, and instead of judging those I didn’t like, allowing them to be okay.

This was a very gentle way to start letting go of any judgments I had on myself at a subconscious level. They beautiful part of this technique is that the longer you sit in non-judgment of yourself, the less you start to believe in anything limiting or negative the mind has to say.

I did this meditation each morning and in the evening I would focus for 10 minutes on what I was grateful for about the day. The combination of these two practices was incredibly powerful in helping me to develop a new relationship with my inner-self that was based on acceptance instead of judgment.

If you are looking for something right now in your life to help boost your confidence levels, then start with self-acceptance. Once you stop judging yourself and pushing down things that you don’t like or aren’t comfortable with, then your natural confidence will rise up to the surface of your mind and body.

We don’t ever have a confidence issue, we might think we do but that is never the case. We either experience love or fear. If we are experiencing love, which can also be experienced as happiness, peace, or feeling centered, then our confidence is naturally there – we don’t have to do anything to make it appear. only have love or fear. When we choose love over fear, then our confidence is unwavering. So next time you find yourself judging that you lack confidence in any area of your life, stop for a moment and notice that thought and whatever emotions come with it, and then accept them and let them go.

But if we are experiencing fear, which is also experienced as doubt, anxiety, worry, of feeling uncentered, then until we resolve the fear then there is no chance for confidence because our mind is telling us a story that we are lost in that keeps us from feeling powerful in our lives.

When we choose love over fear, then our confidence is unwavering. So next time you find yourself judging that you lack confidence in any area of your life, stop for a moment and notice the thoughts and feelings you are having, and then accept them and let them go. They’ll only hang around if you aren’t willing to let them go.

You can double your confidence with one simple act of choosing to accept yourself instead of rejecting parts that you don’t like. It’s all part of you. And the sooner you make peace with yourself, the sooner you will fall so deeply in love with life that you’ll wonder how you ever doubted that you were born to be happy, healthy, and free.

Self-acceptance is the key to happiness and inner-peace. If you were to do nothing else with your life but focus on accepting yourself exactly as you are then everything you ever dreamed of would magically start appearing in your life.

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Michael Atma
Michael Atma Blog
Skype: michaelatma
Email: Michael@MichaelAtma.com

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Ever wonder how some people seem to have super confidence while others seem to struggle with it?

Well, it all has to do with how we feel about ourselves deep down in our sub-conscious mind. Some people can be super confident at one thing, yet doubt themselves in another area of their life. This all stems from the patterns of thinking that we develop about who we are and what is possible for us to be, do or have in our lives as we grow up.

Can Anyone Have Super Confidence?

The great news is that almost anyone can boost their confidence if they are willing to just follow some simple steps that are proven by others to work.

Whether you’re looking to be more confident in your health, happiness, career, finances, or anything at all, then it’s really just a decision away from being unleashed in your life. Everything that we want to achieve starts with making a real decision. And a real decision is one where we get off our butts and do something everyday towards making it happen – no matter what obstacles get in the way.

In the video below I’m going to step you through the top 5 things you can do to have unstoppable confidence in your life starting today.

How To Have Super Confidence

How did you go? I hope that this video has given you some easy-to-apply strategies to help super-boost your confidence to new heights. I’m absolutely certain that if you just take one of these tips and start using it today, you’ll be amazed at the results.

Did This Help You? If so, I would greatly appreciate it if you commented below and shared on Facebook

Michael Atma’s Blog
Skype: michaelatma
Email: Michael@MichaelAtma.com

“I Teach You how to live a Happier, Healthier and More Fulfilling Life in Just 5 Minutes a Day!”

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One of the biggest questions I get asked is about self-empowerment. Really, when you think about it, if you’re not feeling empowered about yourself at home or at work, or even just in general, then this will have a negative impact on your ability to make the best decisions and take the best actions in your life.

To me, empowerment is about being okay with who you are and no longer being able to be manipulated by others to make decisions that are not in your best interest.

On another level it’s having the strength of character to do what’s right for you, and never give away your ‘power’ to be in control of your own life to others through thought, word or deed. When you think about it, the pathway to self-empowerment is to aim for healthy self-esteem.

As long as you can get to this place, then you are right on track for the next level, which is to take full ownership over all your decisions, actions and results.

How Do I Increase My Self-Confidence?

Before you can have healthy self-esteem, you must first work on your self-confidence. The difference between them is that self-esteem is when you feel competent to cope with the fundamental challenges of life and being worthwhile to be happy.

Whereas, self-confidence is the level of confidence you have in your abilities to handle whatever life throws at you. Your confidence can be increased through learning new skills that will help you to improve your abilities to deal with money, relationship, work, or even health challenges.

Then, as your confidence grows, so to will your self-esteem until eventually you will have a very strong sense of personal power. If you have ever spent anytime around people who exude personal power then you will know what this looks and feels like.

This is what you are aiming for. The look and feel that you not only deserve to be here but that you are here to shine brightly into the world and there is nothing that can take this light away from you.

How Do I Stop Caring About What Others Think?

When you are living your full personal power, then your happiness and fulfillment will no longer be dependent upon others. This does not mean that others don’t matter. Quite the contrary, as we live in a world where interdependence is a way of life.

What it does mean though is that others won’t be able to mentally, emotionally or physically manipulate, or ‘bully’ you into doing things ‘their’ way. Unless of course you choose to. It also means the end of codependent relationships, and the beginning of happier and healthier relationships based on equality and respect.

In fact, if you really want to fast track your personal power, then the simplest way to do it is to stop trying to please others. Just give it up and never do it again. This one action will free up your life and change your destiny far quicker than anything else you will ever do.

Be aware that the moment you stop giving others what they want all the time, there will be fall-out. Typically, this will look like they get pissed at you for not making them happy, or going along with whatever they thought was best for you.

Let them be pissed off because that tells you right away that they don’t give two hoots about you really, otherwise why get upset when all you are doing is saying ‘yes’ to yourself. Kind of stupid when you think about it.

This behavior tells you that perhaps it’s time to move on and find new and more enlightened relationships with people who can love and accept you for who you are.

As a final note, personal power is real easy to grow. It just takes the willingness to not be liked by everyone, and the courage to love others no matter whether they agree with you and your decisions, or not. To love yourself for who you are, the good, the bad and the ugly, is true self-love.

It is only when we can look in the mirror and  be at total peace with the person that looks back that your life will take off in leaps and bounds. Then whatever adventure you choose to have, be it for love, money, fun, health or lifestyle, you can have it all – and be okay with it.

Below I have written down the fundamental rights that each of us are born to enjoy in our lives. Sometimes, we can get lost in a world where we forget about ourselves and end up living a life of regret.

Trust me, once you have used up even one minute of your life, you can never get it back. That’s why it’s crucial that we stand tall and let ourselves and the world around us know that we deserve to be here and that we deserve to be happy and fulfilled.

All you need to do is print out the list below and read it out loud once or twice a a day until you believe every single sentence you read and are living it. I guarantee you that when these statements become second nature to you, your life will be extraordinary in every way.

My Individual Rights of Being

I have …

• The right to ask for what I want (realizing that the other person has a right to say ‘No’).
• The right to have an opinion, feelings and emotions and to express them appropriately.
• The right to make statements which have no logical basis, and which I do not have to justify.
• The right to make my own decisions and cope with the consequences.
• The right to choose whether or not to get involved with the problems of someone else.
• The right not to know about something, or to understand.
• The right to make mistakes.
• The right to be successful.
• The right to change my mind.
• The right to privacy.
• The right to be alone and independent.
• The right to not be perfect.
• The right to change myself.
• The right to express myself assertively.

Keep in mind that if you have these rights, so do others. As you allow yourself to be okay with each of these right’s, make sure that you give other’s the space to live them as well. This will create powerful relationships based on the premise that you’re okay and I’m okay, and then everybody wins.