How to Walk With Confidence

How to Walk With Confidence

Have you ever seen someone walk into a room and immediately demand attention and respect? This is a truly quite amazing thing to witness and it demonstrates an incredible amount of confidence and poise to be able to pull off.

Partly, this comes down to the way we walk. Even this seemingly innocuous activity can drastically change the ‘vibes’ that we give off, and so it’s important to recognize what kinds of signals we’re putting out.

Walking with confidence is something that isn’t easy but you can develop it over time if you know how.

The Basics

Walking with confidence does not mean swaggering your shoulders like those kids that want to be gangsters. It doesn’t mean being aggressive and it doesn’t even necessarily mean walking quickly or walking with ‘purpose’.

What it means, is walking as someone who is very confident and very happy and comfortable with who they are.

And as is so often the case with body language, this often comes down to the direction you’re looking and just how much space you take up. Walk with your chest pointing upwards and your chin slightly raised and you will beam happiness and confidence.

Walk in a hunched manner with a shuffle and you will find you look naturally shy and retiring.
Often what is recommended is that you imagine a ray of light is bursting out your chest as you walk – which can transform your entire stance.

One more important tip? Smile as you walk. Smiling is one of the signs of confidence.
The Hard Part
Simple. Done and done!
Right?

Unfortunately, it’s not quite that easy. Because I imagine you’ve been walking for a long time. Probably since you were about 1…

Which means some habits will be deeply ingrained and they can be hard to shake.
And remembering to do these things is very hard indeed. It comes down to mindfulness and of being a little bit aware of how you act and what you do.

One way to instil this new behavior then is to look for a trigger or a prompt. A good one is passing through thresholds and doorways. In other words, every time you walk into a new room, remember the chest trick!

Another way is to practice mindfulness in general. This is a powerful and very useful skill that makes us more aware of ourselves in a non-judgement way.