After you have relaxed your body with your favorite relaxation technique, start to visualize yourself in your mind. If you cannot actually see your self, then imagine or feel your self. Imagine your self loving and caring for your self. Create feelings of acceptance and respect for your self. Recognize how worthy you are, how good you are, how much you really care for others (independent as to whether you are able to show it or not).

Create images in your mind which represent this love and acceptance that you have for your self. You may see your self treating your self to something you like, or hugging your self, or dancing or doing something you like. Imagine your self functioning in your daily life; at home, at work, in social situations with complete self acceptance in each situation. See your self feeling confident and at ease with all people.

See that you are not concerned about what they think about you. You accept your self and them independent of their opinions of you. See that your self acceptance allows you to accept others and be free from the need to have their acceptance, and thus you are free from fear, and can be much more natural. Imagine your self functioning naturally and simply in all situations like a child full of purity and sincerity. Imagine all this and anything else positive which comes to your mind, everyday and you will see major changes in your life.

Like our self acceptance, our feelings of self confidence are also undermined in our early formative years. We at that time do not have a clear idea of what we are actually able to do. Our parents and teachers, in their attempt to help us, often criticized us for our mistakes, and made us feel incapable and unworthy when we made mistakes. They may have given us these messages in many ways, verbal and otherwise, that we do not know, that we are not capable.

We may spend a whole life time undermining our success so as to continue to verify that we are failures or incapable. Or we may spend a whole life time ÇshowingÈ the others just how capable we are. These may lead us to health and happiness-destroying life style in which we give importance only to what might get us recognition in the eyes of the others such as money, professional position, sexual vitality, a good looking body, various material possessions and various other status symbols. We may chase after these just to prove to the others that we are able and successful so that we can have their recognition.

Until, however, we realize ourselves that we are capable, we will not be satisfied. I have met a large number of extremely capable persons who have not yet recognized their abilities because of such negative programming. The following technique will be helpful to many people in various aspects of their lives.

a. After relaxing your body and mind with one of the various relaxation techniques, begin to imagine yourself as strong, vibrant and capable. Imagine your self performing various activities with self confidence and ease. Imagine that you are comfortable with all types of activities because you are sure of yourself. You are sure that you will be able to do it.

b. Imagine various activities or situations in which you usually do not feel sure of your self or even feel fear. Imagine your self in each situation separately and imagine that you feel absolutely calm, confident and sure of yourself and that you handle those situations without any problems whatsoever.

c. Imagine your day as you have it planned. Your meetings with new people, various projects which you have planned and imagine your self moving through all these activities with a sense of surety and ease. Imagine that your confidence attracts the respect and trust of others, that they believe in you and depend on you; and that you are comfortable with that responsibility.

d. Imagine your self in new situations which may in that past have caused some self doubt, and imagine that you are feeling very confident that you will learn to function gradually in that situation as you have in so many others.

e. Repeat to yourself the phrase, ÇI am capable of handling any situation which life may present to me. I am an immortal soul in the process of evolution. Life is giving me the situations and opportunities which I need in order to continue to develop and manifest my inner potentialÈ. It is not necessary for the words to be the same, but that you concentrate on these truths while in the relaxation.

f. Be creative in developing your own images and phrases.