Recently, I was interviewed on a podcast (link coming soon) and the host asked me how I defined confidence.
I paused to reflect on my own journey as well as how I coach women on this crucial piece so I and they can step into our full power and potential.
In my experience, there exist two kinds of confidence.
I like to call them Yin and Yang confidence.
One is an inner confidence, what I refer to as Yin Confidence. It’s a relationship cultivated with our inner self, which becomes a source of power, strength and clarity in personal and professional environments. Yin confidence is unshakeable and external circumstances like losing a job/client, getting a divorce don’t change this connection with self. It’s is an unshakeable inner compass that guides us, naturally and intuitively, to the right decisions, opportunities and people.
Yin confidence is cultivated consciously through deep inner-work, mindfulness practices, developing the right mindset by clearing blockages etc.
Talking of mindfulness, I’ll be leading a donation-based Tibetan healing meditation at the Timucua house in Orlando this Thursday if you’d like to experience a calming meditation experience. And I’d love to hug you in person of course 🙂
Yang confidence is more about how we show up in the world. It’s our capacity to step out of our comfort zone and do hard, challenging things. For women, especially, this is a crucial kind of confidence to cultivate when cultural and societal norms decide what we can or cannot do. (Hillary Clinton talks about how she received a letter as a young girl from NASA telling her girls can’t be astronauts). If it’s easy, we’re likely not exploring our full potential and missing out on a crucial aspect of confidence.
Yang confidence is cultivated through taking risks, learning new, challenging tasks, saying YES when we aren’t fully ready and other practices that push us out of comfort zone.
Most clients I work with are either more Yin confident or Yang confident. We work to develop both sides equally.
Are you more Yin confident or Yang confident? What can you do to balance the two?