EDMONTON CONFIDENCE BUILDING WORKSHOPS-"I am not happy with my self-image."

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“I am not happy with my self-image.”

This is something I hear often from clients who lack confidence. They do not understand the role that the primitive mind plays in their difficulties. It is important to realize that your self-image is deeply rooted and new perceptions of the self must be accepted and absorbed by the primitive mind. For people experiencing confidence issues, the mind has adopted and cemented the identity of "one who lacks confidence.”  This should sound familiar to you if you have completed the complimentary workbook.

Words like fearful, anxious, uncertain, weak, timid, nervous, passive, indecisive, lacking ambition, socially awkward or complacent may come to mind when one describes a person who lacks confidence.  

However, the primitive mind can be influenced into accepting a more confident self-image if it’s learning needs are met. When we perceive people as being confident, we might describe them as having a strong belief in themselves, being courageous, self-assured, poised, assertive, self-respectful, competent, socially intelligent, self-reliant, composed or determined. 

It is important to realize that the primitive mind has adopted an identity and we will never outperform our self-image. True lasting change requires an acceptance that patterns have a neurological reality. 

The primitive mind: 

• is a learning machine
• is not your soul, spirit or higher power
• runs outdated programs based on beliefs installed during times of vulnerability
• serves up the same thought, feeling, and behavior patterns over and over again
• has a robotic stubborn nature that must be programmed with conscious awareness
• has the job of maintaining the status quo
• prefers familiar paths of least resistance aka cow paths
• can be re-educated  

Terri Lee Cooper MSc. RSW

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