It kind of feels like a losing battle, doesn’t it? Like once we hit midlife, poof! – we just don’t matter anymore.
But here’s some great news: you can have all the self confidence you want at any age and any weight, any time you want to. Because “society” doesn’t actually determine how you feel about yourself.
My friend, you have not just one, but two superpowers, and both of them are at your disposal any time of day, right in your amazing brain.
Your Superpowers: Metacognition and Neuroplasticity
Metacognition is a big fancy word that means you can think about your thoughts. Your second superpower is neuroplasticity – another big fancy word! – which means that you can change your thoughts on purpose.
When you use these two superpowers together, you can make dramatic improvements to anything in your life, including your self-confidence.
Here’s what this looks like in real life: let’s say you’re reading a magazine or watching a TV show where everybody seems so young and tiny and cute, and you notice yourself feeling really down and defeated.
So, here we go with superpower number one! You ask yourself, “What am I thinking right now?”
And then you start listening to that internal dialogue that we all have, all the time, and it turns out that you were thinking, “Omg, I’m so old and fat.”
A-ha! That is not a thought that feels like self-confidence.
So let’s put our metacognition superpower to use. Not only are you thinking that thought, “Omg, I’m so old and fat,” but you can deliberately, on purpose, notice it and think about it and question if it’s a thought you want to be thinking.
And then – here comes your other superpower! – you can change your thoughts on purpose,. Your amazing, miraculous brain is capable of thinking anything, at any time, for any reason. So you can decide to think something new and different and loving toward yourself.
Having metacognition and neuroplasticity is basically like having x-ray vision and the Lasso of Truth! Your metacognition x-ray vision helps you find your non-confident thoughts and your neuroplasticity Lasso of Truth helps you change them into confident ones.
It’s not a quick fix, of course – your brain is way too smart for that! – but it is a simple, doable process that you can use to improve your self-confidence, to change your weight, to make peace with menopause, or get any goal you have.
You don’t need “society” to give you self-confidence – you have the superpowers to give it to yourself!
For more tips on how to feel great about your body, check out my weekly fitness podcast, Fitness Matters.