Meditation

Given that the (rubbish) strategies for building confidence earlier in my life; drinking and hanging about with really confident people, actually caused more harm than good I became increasingly open minded about possible solutions.

Therefore, I gave Meditation a go a few years ago. Now, in my youth, I was exactly the type of sceptic who would have mocked this idea. However, it really helps by allowing negative thoughts to become less all consuming and more distant and allows the development of a more positive overall mindset.

However, (and I'm sure you have spotted a theme here) it is by no means a quick fix. It takes a long time to practice and even after a few years I'm still an amateur. However, it really does work and if we can deal with our thoughts, especially negative ones, more easily then it is one very useful way of allowing confidence to be built.

The story on Matthieu Ricard below hit the press earlier this year and seems to confirm some of the anecdotal evidence on the positive effects of meditation.

matthieu-ricard

 And he certainly looks pretty content