Cultivating Radiant Inner Confidence - Ziji

<p>If you’ve been around me for any time at all, you’ve definitely heard me talk about Ziji. Ziji is all about confidence. But not just any confidence.</p><p> </p><p><i>Ziji </i>is a Tibetan word that means radiant inner confidence.</p><p> </p><p>What makes it so...essential to a full, meaningful life of freedom, adventure and purpose?</p><p> </p><p>Let’s start by imagining what life was like before anything “bad” ever happened to us. As we grow and learn, we see the outside world as a place with both good and bad experiences. Over time, as we experience the bad ones, we want to protect ourselves from the hurt we feel. So we lock ourselves down. We shut the windows and doors - and the opportunities that go with them.</p><p> </p><p>Here are a few examples of things that cause us to close off to the world and shut those windows and doors of opportunity:</p><ul><li>Being told it isn’t realistic to live our passions (dreaming shuts down!).</li><li>A partner leaving you for someone else (trust shuts down!).</li><li>Hearing your parents argue day and night about money (being comfortable with money and abundance shuts down!).</li><li>Putting on your first art show and nothing sells (believing you can be successful living your passion shuts down!).</li></ul><p> </p><p>We lock ourselves down in these moments because we want to be safe. We think we’ve managed to protect ourselves from those bad experiences ever happening again, but we’ve also closed ourselves off to any possible opportunities, joy, and light. We don’t take risks where there is even the remote possibility of failing. </p><p> </p><p>But the result of not taking any real risks is you never know what might actually be possible should you live life full-out. And you’re scared as hell that you don’t have all your bases covered and something is going to sneak in and knock you around again. And it probably will. </p><p> </p><p>Why do we protect ourselves with such fervor? Usually, it is because we don’t think we’ll be able to take what comes next, that we’ll be ab