Confidence is believing in yourself – believing that you are capable of completing tasks and reaching goals.
Confidence is knowing that you have skills and positive traits, that you are able to face challenges and deal with difficult circumstances; it is knowing that you are your best resource. Confidence levels can change throughout your life and across different areas of your life. Many things can influence your confidence levels such as your thoughts, feelings, actions and past experiences.
What does confidence mean for women?
Why is confidence important for health?
What gives you confidence?
What can you do to build your confidence?
Mind your mind
Get social
Confidence and social connections
Watch Jean Hailes Professor of Women's Health Jane Fisher discuss confidence and what it means for women in the video below.
When you feel confident you tend to make decisions that are good for you and your health. You are more likely to take care of yourself, get out and about, be active, and choose healthier foods. Confidence can also give you a positive outlook on life, increasing your mental and emotional wellbeing.
However, when your confidence is low, your feelings of self-worth and self-respect may also suffer. You may not care how others treat you or how you treat yourself. You may not care about what you eat or how you spend your time, and this can start to affect your health.
It can also be hard to make decisions and face challenges when your confidence is low. You may start to doubt yourself and what you can achieve. Meeting new people or trying new things may become more difficult. You might worry about saying or doing the wrong thing and so you start to hide away and avoid things. This avoidance behaviour can lead to a negative cycle, lowering your confidence even more.
It is important to remember that your confidence levels cannot be high across all areas of your life all the time. You can experience low levels of confidence at different times and in different areas of your life and sometimes it is hard to work out why. It is important to try and understand what affects your confidence because ongoing low confidence can affect your physical and emotional health, your relationships with others, and your work or school life.
Watch the video below and see what gives these women confidence.
The good news is there are lots of things you can do to help with your confidence. Here are a few tips:
In this podcast, Jean Hailes health experts, Professor Jane Fisher and Dr Mandy Deeks, discuss how to build confidence.
Keeping your mind and brain healthy is an important part of building and maintaining confidence. Your mood, concentration levels, and memory can all affect your outlook on life so taking care of these areas is another way that can improve confidence.
The wrong foods, not enough food or water, too little sleep and not being active can all affect your mind, making you depressed, sad, anxious, prone to stress, mood swings or unable to concentrate.
Studies show that a healthy brain needs good nutrition, exercise and mental challenges. Visit our healthy living webpages to learn about foods that could benefit your brain and mental health and find lots of tips and information about healthy eating and being physically active.