Level 8: Confidence

Meditation helps us build mindfulness and awareness. At first, we may find it easier to apply awareness to the world around us. Ultimately, we become aware of our own mind and how we interpret and react to the world. Directing mindful attention inward during meditation strengthens self-awareness. We then become more capable of remaining self-aware when acting in the world.

Meditation is a helpful way to build self-confidence. As we get to know our mind better in meditation, we become more trusting of our experience and how we interpret it. We experience a genuine confidence in who we are, one that is independent of our accomplishments or even our thoughts and emotions. This trust isn’t created, but revealed through meditation, as it’s a natural part of who we are.

Self-esteem is a genuine type of confidence that’s rooted in self-acceptance and our beliefs about our value and self-worth. Meditation helps to build confidence and self esteem by encouraging a deep self-awareness. In meditation, we connect to the spacious awareness beyond our thoughts and emotions. Here lies an innate sense of self-worth that is not dependent on external causes and conditions.

Mindfulness increases confidence by shedding light on the difference between genuine and conditional confidence. Typically, our confidence is dependent on what’s happening in our lives or even the lives of others. Genuine confidence comes from deep within. It’s an inherent part of who we are. Mindfulness and the self-awareness we develop through meditation, help connect us to this authentic self-confidence at the center of our being.