Don’t Confuse Self Doubt with Self Esteem

How Your Brain Chemically Triggers Confidence When You Exercise

People with high levels of self-esteem are self-aware. They know who they are, what they are about, and have a clearly defined value system. No matter what happens in their life, they can make it through because they are confident in the decisions they make, since they clearly understand themselves and are self-assured in their actions and behaviors.

Self-esteem perpetuates confidence, and confidence can help build self-esteem.

This is due to how your brain works when you accomplish something. If your brain recognizes something you did or thought as being positive in some way, endorphins and other pleasure-inducing chemicals are released. This just makes sense. By rewarding behavior that promotes happiness and health, your brain encourages you to perform those positive actions again in the future. This happens today because of a process which started with early man.

The Fight or Flight Process

Your earliest ancestors had a very tough time getting through life. Danger lurked around every turn, and each day was filled with problems that made mere survival very difficult. So, it was important for the human brain to develop a pleasurable reward system when one of your cave-dwelling predecessors had a successful hunt, found nuts and berries to eat or started a fire.

That same reward system is alive and well in the human mind today.

Many times, when faced with a threat, which happened on a regular, daily basis, your ancestors had to make an instant decision whether to fight or flee. They may have been faced with a saber-toothed tiger, a dangerous environment, or some other threat. When this happened, the fight or flight process made their senses come alive.

Every fiber of their being was on high alert. Their minds were instantly focused and clear. Their muscles tensed, their heart began beating faster, to send oxygenated blood to all of their muscles, and they were prepared to either run away from the threat, or fight it.

 
This is the exact same process that happens when you exercise.

The number of life-threatening dangers you encounter these days are few and far between, especially when compared with early humans. However, the fight or flight process which releases positively empowering endorphins and hormones is the same as it was back then. Since fleeing or fighting in the face of danger triggers a lot of the same processes and chemical responses that exercise does, exercise can give you a boost of self-confidence.

Success Breeds Confidence

When prehistoric man encountered a cave bear, he sensed two things – a threat to his existence, and a potentially large food supply. The first time he had to fight a cave bear, he was probably scared to death. However, upon successfully defeating that dangerous threat to himself and his clan, a surge of self-confidence was the reward. Accordingly, he became more confident and sure of his actions as he encountered cave bears in the future.

The same exact chemicals which promote confidence, higher levels of self-esteem and self-assuredness that your cave bear-defeating ancestors enjoyed is triggered when you exercise. The physical activity required for prehistoric man to take down a large, dangerous opponent or threat mimics the same tensing, stretching, lifting, bending and moving that takes place during common exercises.

Since your brain doesn’t understand the difference between exercise and noticing a threat to your existence, confidence-boosting endorphins are released. The physiological process that happens when you exercise also boosts your immune system, reducing your risk from becoming infected or contracting disease.

So, in many ways, exercise, mild or intensive, for young and
old, men and women, for the weak and the strong, creates
an automatic process which can build confidence.

The role of exercise and promoting confidence and belief in self also has to do with the results you see. You get a sense of achievement when you notice your exercise efforts are paying off in some way. You may be losing weight, running faster, thinking more clearly, or accomplishing some physical goal that you set.

As you see yourself progressing towards some reward or goal that exercise is enabling you to achieve, you can’t help but feel good about yourself. This may include liking how you look in front of a mirror for the first time in years. Your exercise may lead to compliments from others, which not only cranks up your confidence, but promotes your desire to continue exercising to keep receiving such compliments.
Combined with the “feel good” endorphins which relieve stress and make you feel great psychologically, your feelings of accomplishment positively compound your confidence and self-esteem. As it turns out, confidence in one area often leads to confident belief in other aspects of your life. So take up an exercise program today for physical and mental benefits, an unconscious, automatic release of hormones that will make you feel good about yourself, and a strong belief of confidence in your abilities.

Self-Esteem vs Confidence – Is There a Difference?

Whatever you feel, whatever emotion you are processing at any given moment, your mental state triggers hormonal and chemical releases. When you enjoy high levels of confidence and self-esteem, you naturally boost your resistance to disease and infection. The chemical processes attached to being self-assured and thinking highly of yourself are related to corresponding high levels of mental and physical health and well-being.

These are automatic processes.

Your mind is very selfish. It wants you to feel good. So when you do feel good about yourself, and confident in your actions, your brain rewards those feelings by making your body and your mind happy and healthy. Alternately, when you doubt yourself and lack confidence, even in small, simple endeavors, negative hormones and chemicals are your unfortunate reward.

This negative response leads to high levels of stress and inflammation, which in turn can become the jumping off point for a long list of mental and physical health problems.

While confidence and self-esteem both impact your overall health and well-being in a positive way, they are not the same. They are definitely related in some ways, and entirely different in others. Let’s take a look at each of these positive self-beliefs individually, for a deeper understanding of how they are alike and different.

Confidence

The way you feel about your abilities in particular situations dictates your level of self-confidence. This can vary from time to time, depending on the situation or set of circumstances you find yourself in.

You may have a high level of confidence in the kitchen. You have been cooking, baking, broiling, boiling, sautéing and frying for years. You have yet to run across a recipe you couldn’t turn into a mouthwatering and delicious experience. Even when presented with something you have never prepared before, you have absolutely no doubt that the finished product you create will be perfect.

That same sky-high level of confidence may disappear entirely if you are asked to speak before a large group about cooking. Even though you have a wealth of information on the subject, the idea of standing in front of a large public audience absolutely leaves you shaking in your shoes. Although you are more than confident about your cooking ability, you are less than confident about your ability to speak in public.

By working at something, you can become better at it. This raises your level of confidence, which in turn boosts your belief in yourself, promoting a healthy level of self-esteem.

Self-Esteem

Think of self-esteem as self-love. You either hold yourself in high or low self-esteem. While confidence can be defined as how you feel about your abilities to accomplish certain things, self-esteem is how you feel about yourself overall. Just as confidence can build by repeating certain behaviors or tasks, a high or low level of self-esteem usually develops from multiple experiences and circumstances you have encountered in your life.

The situations you have witnessed or personally encountered that have had some type of impact you shape how you view yourself right now. Children who are told they are worthless and will never amount to anything experience low levels of self-esteem. The people they look up to, admire and respect tell them they are not worthy of love and caring, and these recurring life experiences years later create an adult that lacks self-love and self-worth.

The opposite is also true.

When you love yourself, your level of self-esteem improves dramatically. People with high levels of self-esteem are more confident. As your self-esteem grows, your confidence not only lends itself to things you are familiar with and good at accomplishing, but you are confident you can handle unfamiliar situations as well. As long as you love yourself, and own a high level of self-esteem, you are ready to tackle any task or endeavor confidently.

A Wonderful Cycle of Mental Health and Well-Being

Even if you don’t think much of yourself, you can boost your confidence through repetition of a task. You eventually become good at it, and your self-esteem skyrockets. This improved belief in self lends itself towards confidence in taking on familiar, and even unfamiliar, situations, experiences and endeavors. This creates a beautiful, self-perpetuating cycle that effortlessly promotes mental and emotional health and well-being.

3 Self Esteem Activities for Adults

Low self-esteem is an issue that almost everyone encounters at some point in their life. Unlike most real world problems, self-esteem isn’t always the easiest issue to solve, and can often be difficult to talk to others about.

There are many activities to help people overcome their self-esteem issues, and here are three easy steps to a higher self-esteem. First, you have to realize that with a low self-esteem, you are more prone to looking at all of the negatives about yourself rather than focusing on what you have going on for you.

Make a list of a couple of positive aspects in either your life, or just your day to day events that went well for you. Physically writing down these positive notes will make you focus more on the things that are going well in your life, rather than emphasizing all of the negatives.

Writing down events or traits that you like about yourself will also show you what makes you happier and when your mood is elevated, which could lead to more positive habits if you continue to chase these positive moments and traits.

Now that you have set up a base level of positive traits about yourself, begin to set short term goals that you can reach, and will benefit you as a person. These goals can be anything that you put your mind to – whether it’s walking more to get in better shape, generally eating better, learning something new at work, picking up a new hobby such as painting, or reconnecting with positive people from your past.

Not only will you feel better about reaching goals, but if the goal is set to bring about a positive outcome in you, then you will also reap self-esteem growth, too. Don’t be afraid to make the goals as small as you want.

Even cleaning the kitchen or mowing the lawn can be a win as long as you know it’s achievable and you feel good about making progress. These smaller goals will pick up the momentum to grow your self-esteem even faster.

After acknowledging your positive traits, things that are going well for you, and achieving wins for yourself, you now have the ball rolling, and it’s time to reward yourself as the third self esteem boosting activity.

Go do something that’s fun or relaxing for yourself because overcoming self-esteem isn’t an easy task and you’ve earned it. Not only do you get to treat yourself to something nice like a pedicure, ballgame, or your favorite restaurant, but you also set yourself up to be in a good mood throughout the week.

Being in a better mood will give you a higher chance of thinking positively about your life, and raise your self-esteem. Seeing things in a positive light helps you see everything with less negativity.