Self confidence is an emotional and mental mindset which responds to an individual's need for recognition and self-acceptance. It's one of the oldest and most studied ideas in psychology. It describes a positive albeit proper perception of oneself and one's abilities. Thus, people with self confidence generally have a better knowledge of what they are able to achieve and will be more apt to succeed in their projects. They are also more likely to admit and understand their mistakes.

On the contrary, a lack of confidence might deter you from believing what you do and decide will later turn out the way you had wanted. It can thus inhibit the improvement of executive skills, strategic and managerial strength all of which are necessary and sought-after skills in the business world of today. The pre-occupation with other people's judgment of your work might also make you become extremely self-critical, which is something that can distract you from assignments you would have otherwise been fully capable of doing.

Low self confidence will also affect your social life, as people with low self confidence tend to remain in their "comfort zone" and fear the risk of rejection. This is called social phobia and has a high level of co-morbidity with low self confidence, but also other mental diseases like depression. People with low self confidence are scared of the judgment of their peers and will avoid meeting new people, which can subsequently lead to isolation and even lower self confidence. Low self confidence is a vicious cycle that's hard to break.

To the contrary, because they have faith in their own aptitudes, people with self confidence are able to do what they feel is appropriate and do not feel the need for the approval of other people. They also trigger confidence: your relatives, friends, boss, customers or employees are more likely to believe in you or in what you are saying if you look self-confident.

Numerous experiences can cause low self confidence. Recent research shows that parenting style has an important effect on the development of the self confidence of a child. Corporal and psychological abuses in childhood are for instance the worse for a person's self confidence, as well as family conflicts or divorce. Overprotective parents can also be a reason for a child's social phobia and inhibit the independence that is necessary to build self confidence. Failures and successes, for instance at school or in one's professional life, also play an important role: losing a job or failing a class are some of the various experiences that will negatively affect your self confidence.

It is however possible to overcome those bad experiences and gain self confidence. The first thing to do in order to build self confidence is to learn to know who you are and your strengths. Acknowledging the fact that you are allowed not to be perfect and cannot be good in everything you do will help you build self confidence. Accepting yourself as you are is the key to gaining self confidence. But improving self confidence also requires that you start taking risks and giving yourself credit for your accomplishments. This is very simple advice that will help you build self confidence. You may also find a great number of books that will tell you how to build self confidence, but not all of them are reliable.

A great number of people suffer from low self confidence or are only able to gain self confidence in one or a few areas of their lives because they always seek other people's approval and are scared of failing. A lot of factors, like childhood traumas, can explain why some people are not able to have the wholesome life a self confident person could have. These individuals also don't always know how to gain self confidence. However improving self confidence can now easily and effectively be achieved with hypnosis and NLP.

As we have seen before social phobia and low self confidence can be caused by traumas or unconscious fears which are sometimes hard to overcome through self persuasion only. Confidence hypnosis and NLP by contrast are able to reach the unconscious part of our mind and change belief systems to boost self confidence. They are powerful tools that will help you face your fears and believe in yourself to develop self confidence.

Self Hypnosis for building self confidence has been used for decades and has shown significant results in building self confidence. In a hypnotized state, reaching unconscious thoughts is a lot easier and, thanks to hypnotic suggestion, you will be able to replace your negative thought patterns with positive ones to build self confidence.

Author's Bio: 

Alan B. Densky, CH is an NGH certified hypnotherapist. He offers effective hypnosis CD's for social phobias and self confidence. His self hypnosis for self confidence CD's were independently reviewed in the UK. Visit his Neuro-VISION hypnotherapy site to view free hypnosis videos.