Self confidence is a psychological and emotional state of mind that responds to our need for peer recognition and self-acceptance. It's one among the oldest and most discussed ideas in psychology. It is used to describe a good but nonetheless proper perception somebody has of himself or herself and of his or her abilities. As such, people with self confidence frequently have a better knowledge of what they can do and will be more likely to be successful in what they attempt. They will also more readily admit and learn from their failures.

On the contrary, a lack of confidence may deter you from trusting that what you do and decide will ultimately work out as you had wanted. It can hence interfere with the development of executive aptitudes, strategic and management capacities all of which are basic and indispensable skills in today's business world. The pre-occupation with other people's opinions of your work might also make you become excessively self-critical, which will distract you from things you would otherwise be fully capable of performing.

Low self confidence will also affect your social life, as people with a low level of self confidence are more likely to stay 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, as well as other psychological conditions like depression. People with low self confidence are scared of the judgment of others and will avoid meeting new people, which can in turn lead to isolation and even less self confidence. Low self confidence is a vicious circle that is hard to break.

To the contrary, because they believe in their aptitudes, people with self confidence can do what they feel is right and do not feel the need for the approval of others. They also trigger confidence: your friends, relatives, boss, employees or customers are more likely to trust you or what you are telling them when you look self-confident.

Many experiences can lead to low self confidence. Recent research indicates that parenting style has a major impact on the development of the self confidence of children. Physical and mental abuses during childhood are for instance the most damaging to a person's self confidence, along with divorce or family conflicts. Overprotective parents may also contribute to a child's social phobia and hamper the independence that is necessary to develop self confidence. Successes and failures, for instance at school or in one's professional life, also play a decisive role: failing a class or losing a job are some of the several experiences that will have a negative impact your self confidence.

There are nonetheless ways to overcome these bad experiences and improve self confidence. The first step to develop self confidence is to learn to know yourself and your strengths. Recognizing that you are allowed not to be perfect and cannot be good in all that you do will help you build self confidence. Accepting yourself as you are is the key to building self confidence. But in order to improve your self confidence you also have to start taking risks and giving yourself credit for your achievements. This is very simple advice which will help you improve self confidence. You may also find several books which will claim they can help you gain self confidence, however not all of them are reliable.

Many 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 constantly seek other people's approval and are scared of failing. Numerous factors, for example childhood traumas, can explain why certain people cannot enjoy the wholesome life a self confident individual could have. Those individuals also don't always know how to gain self confidence. But gaining self confidence can now readily and effectively be achieved thanks to hypnosis and NLP.

As we have seen before social phobia and low self confidence can stem from bad experiences or unconscious fears that can be hard to overcome with self persuasion only. Confidence hypnosis and NLP by contrast can reach the unconscious part of our mind and modify 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 in use for decades and has shown significant results in building self confidence. Once in a hypnotic state, getting to 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 boost your confidence.

Alan B. Densky is a hypnotherapist and NLP Practitioner. He offers effective hypnosis CD's for self confidence and social phobias. His self hypnosis for self confidence CD's were reviewed by independents in the UK. Visit his Neuro-VISION hypnosis site to enjoy free hypnosis videos.