Self confidence is an emotional and mental state of mind which responds to our need for self-acceptance and peer recognition. It's one among the oldest and most studied ideas in psychology. It describes a good although proper perception of oneself and one's abilities. Hence, self-confident persons frequently have a better knowledge of what they are able to do and are more apt to succeed in their projects. They are also more likely to admit and understand their failures.

By contrast, a lack of confidence may deter you from believing what you do and decide will ultimately work out as you would have liked to. It can thus inhibit the development of executive skills, planning and managerial abilities all of which are necessary and mandatory skills in the business world of today. The pre-occupation with other people's judgment of your work might also cause you to become too self-critical, which can distract you from tasks you would otherwise be fully able to do.

Low self confidence will also affect your social life, because individuals with a low level of self confidence are more likely to remain in their "comfort zone" and are scared of rejection. This is called social phobia and presents a high degree of co-morbidity with low self confidence, as well as other mental conditions such as depression. People with low self confidence are afraid of the judgment of others and will avoid meeting new people, which can subsequently lead to isolation and even less self confidence. Low self confidence is a vicious circle that's difficult to break.

To the contrary, because they are able to trust their own abilities, self-confident persons are able to do what they feel is right and do not feel the need for the approval of others. They also trigger confidence: your boss, employees, customers, friends or relatives will be more likely to trust you or what you are telling them when you appear self-confident.

Many experiences can lead to low self confidence. New research proves that parenting style has an important impact on the development of the self confidence of a child. Physical and emotional abuses during childhood are for example the worse for a person's self confidence, along with family conflicts and divorce. Overprotective parents can also be a reason for a child's social phobia and deter the independence mandatory to develop self confidence. Successes and failures, for example at school or in one's professional life, also play an important role: losing a job or failing a class are some of the different experiences that will have a negative impact your self confidence.

It is however possible to overcome such bad experiences and increase confidence. The first step to develop self confidence is to learn to know yourself and what your strengths are. Acknowledging the fact that you are allowed not to be perfect and cannot be the best in everything 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 accomplishments. This is very simple advice which will help you gain self confidence. You might also find a great number of books which will claim they can help you improve self confidence, however many of them are not reliable.

Many people have low self confidence or are only able to gain self confidence in one or a few areas of their lives because they continually try to get other people's approval and are scared that they could fail. A lot of factors, including childhood traumas, can explain why some people cannot enjoy the wholesome life of a self confident individual. Such people also don't always know how to gain self confidence. But gaining self confidence can now readily and effectively be achieved through NLP and hypnosis.

As we have seen before social phobia and low self confidence can be triggered by bad experiences or unconscious fears which may be difficult to overcome through self persuasion only. Confidence hypnosis and NLP on the contrary are able to reach the unconscious part of the brain 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.

Confidence hypnosis has been in use for numerous years and has shown significant results in building self confidence. Once in a hypnotic state, getting to unconscious thoughts is much easier and, through hypnotic suggestion, it is possible to replace your negative thought patterns with positive ones to gain self confidence.

Alan B. Densky is a hypnotherapist and NLP Practitioner. He offers effective hypnotherapy 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 NLP site to view free hypnosis videos.