Cultivating True Confidence Building Pride and Self-Acceptance with Michael Henri — podcast episode artwork

SEASON 1 · EPISODE 155

Cultivating True Confidence Building Pride and Self-Acceptance with Michael Henri

Nov 2024 · 39 min Emotions & Inner Work

with Michael Henri

0:00 39:05

In this episode

Show notes

True confidence comes from self-acceptance, not applause — a lesson Michael Henri found reaching a 5,400-meter summit in the Himalayas, where the pride went far beyond the climb itself.

In this episode, Michael shares insights from his journey about cultivating self-worth and finding balance between internal and external validation.

Michael explores the importance of self-compassion and how we can appreciate ourselves without relying solely on big achievements or outside approval. He suggests we aim for 70-80% of our validation to come from within, using practices like journaling, setting personal goals, and celebrating small wins. This helps build resilience, avoid burnout, and steer clear of perfectionism traps.

Michael also emphasizes the role of neurotransmitters like serotonin and oxytocin in feeling pride and accomplishment. By focusing on inner growth, he argues we can foster lasting self-confidence, letting positive emotions guide us toward personal goals. For anyone interested in building self-worth through inner growth, this episode offers practical steps to boost confidence, resilience, and joy in everyday life.

The IN Movement Podcast was formerly the Going Pro Yoga Podcast — and before that, the Yoga Teacher Evolution Podcast and the Rat Race Rebellion Podcast. Same mission, evolved name.

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Hey there, before we get started on this week's episode, I would love to ask for your support by reviewing this podcast. We want to share yoga with as many people as possible and this free resource, this podcast is one of the ways that we can do that. And the best way that you can help support us is by giving us a review.

So if you go to Apple podcast or Spotify or whatever podcast platform you use, Scroll down until you find that star review and then give us some love. Thank you so much and let's get started with this week's episode. We probably have compassion for other people, but how do we have compassion for ourselves when we push ourselves in such a way to the point where even if we overcome challenges, even if we overcome goals and we reach goals, there doesn't seem to be

this validation. There seems to be this like, ah, you could have done better kind of thing. So practicing self compassion has been shown to strengthen your emotional resilience and foster a positive relationship with yourself. Welcome to the Going Pro Yoga podcast. If you love yoga as much as I do, then this podcast is for you.

We talk all things yoga related for teachers in order to supplement and complement and even support after a 200 hour yoga teacher training. Or if you've never done a training before, this podcast is all about just learning more about yoga in an authentic way. Together with Paul Tioto and Byron de Marseille, we put together this podcast to provide you with a free resource to learn learn more about yoga, whether you want to share yoga or teach yoga or just practice

yoga. This podcast is talking all things yoga related and we're trying to talk from the teachers perspective and also the students perspective to make sure we get a full 360° angle on what yoga is all about and how it's evolved in the modern world.

Welcome to our podcast. Good morning from Bali, Indonesia. Welcome to the Going Pro Yoga podcast. My name is Michael Henry, and thank you for tuning into this week's episode. Perhaps for you it's good afternoon. Good evening. I guess depends on when you listen to it. But today, it's such a beautiful day in Bali. Sun is shining.

Even though it is rainy season, it doesn't seem to be raining yet. Thank you. Global warming. Today's episode is going to be a solo episode where we dive into a particular topic related to emotion. So if you didn't notice, I'm very much interested in emotional intelligence, emotional development, which is all kind of related to yoga, you know. So this particular emotion, sorry, this particular episode is, is inspired by my recent trip to Nepal. So I went to Nepal and was there

for about two weeks and I did a 10 day trek where I hiked the Anaporna circuit. If you've done this, then maybe you're familiar with it. But to give you context, the trek that I did anyway was about 10 days. Eight of those days were trekking where we tracked for about 120 kilometers in length or distance and a total of 5.4 kilometers elevation, so 5400 meters above sea level.

So this was a challenging track to give you context. Let's see, I think base camp for Everest is about 5300 meters. And then Everest itself I think is like 8000 meters. So yeah, it's a it's not an easy trek, to say the least.

But what was inspiring this podcast is the feeling that I had when I reached the pot, the top point or the highest point, which was pride, self appreciation. And this is something that I felt was so valuable in that moment. But but also it made me want to think of ways in which this can be cultivated in there in a more regular situation of, of life. Basically where I don't need to fly all the way to Nepal, book this track track for 10 days or 8 days and then have this feeling, which I don't want to

take anything away from it because it was a beautiful feeling. Like it was so valuable to me that I couldn't help to think like how, how can we do more of this? Like what is what is it happening with me right now in this moment when I'm on this top that I can try to cultivate or try to manifest more of this in my life. So then I started to do some research and look a little bit more into, you know, the feeling or the emotion of pride and like how pride happens and, and all

the little nuances in between. So very simply, pride is an emotion that we experience when we overcome a challenge. So I'm going to look at my notes here. I have a few notes. And if you've ever overcome challenges before, you're probably familiar with this feeling of pride. Where are we?

Here we go. So pride is the internal acknowledgement of achievement, often arising from overcoming adversity or achieving a goal. And it can range from personal pride, self appreciation to social pride, recognition from others. So this is something that I think is very interesting, the self appreciation and then the recognition from others. So this is two different ways in which we can experience pride. I wouldn't say 1 is necessarily better than the other. I would say that both are

important and one all by itself can sometimes be not so good. Probably the recognition from others might be a little bit more undesirable in the sense of too much of it can lead to dependence on external validation or external recognition. But let's just talk a little bit more with my definition here. So pride is a motivating force that reinforces behaviors and goals, encouraging individuals to take on new challenges and embrace growth.

Now, growth is something that I think a lot of us are really working towards, right? We're always trying to grow as humans. I think at least in this podcast, the the yogi's of the world. This is why we practice yoga. This is why we work on ourselves. This is why we talk about emotions, emotional intelligence, philosophy like our how are ways in which we can be better humans right now.

The interesting thing about feeling pride, self appreciation, or even getting appreciation or recognition from others is that it starts to Foster and build self-confidence and self esteem. And it relates to more of a positive self-image and reinforces belief in our own capabilities. So just a lot of positive stuff that can come from this, right? So let's talk about how do we kind of cultivate this while avoiding some of those, let's say, dark side, shadow sides of like basically the other side of

it. So let's just say that, OK, in order to achieve this, we need to kind of overcome a challenge or face a challenge, which usually means, OK, we're going to approach a goal. Maybe it's like climbing a mountain, or maybe it's something small like, you know, I want to make sure I go to yoga three times a week, or I want to get this project done, or I want to, I don't know, meditate for 5 minutes a day. You know, it could be any goal.

Now what's the difference between these goals is probably the size overall, the size of the goal or the challenge of the goal, which makes me think of OK, challenge is related to probably stress, the emotion of stress. Now stress has a associated negative connection to stress being a bad thing, especially in the western world.

Yes, stress can be a bad thing, but stress is more about how our body feels. Maybe our emotional body or our energetic body feels when we're, when we're approaching something that is unfamiliar, something that our body is kind of at a point where it needs to do something different in order to overcome that, that that challenge or that stress.

Now stress itself can either be positive or it can be negative. If it's negative, it means that whatever kind of situation we're pertering ourselves into might be at a point where we do not have the capabilities to overcome that.

We can't actually manage that stress. If we can't manage that stress, then that starts to lead to things like overwhelm for our nervous system, for our overwhelm being. And then that's when we start to feel the negative side effects and we would call that distress or dis ease or which can lead to dis ease.

However, if we're able to manage a stress or a challenge with our capabilities in such a way that we're able to kind of push the boundaries a little bit of our levels of comfort, then this is a healthy stress. And this healthy stress can lead to a lot of these positive terms that we were talking about before. So the question is now how do we kind of cultivate a, a process or how do we cultivate this sense of pride and self respect so that we can feel more self

esteem, more confidence in a way in which we're relying on somewhat of our internal validation with a little sprinkle of external validation. And also not pushing ourselves too much to the point where we're getting some of these shadow sides of like perfectionism towards certain goals and, and overcoming certain stresses, burning out or pushing ourselves beyond our bodies capabilities or maybe mental capabilities. And I believe I have a few more.

Let me look at my notes really quick. Ah yes, over identifying with success and of course comparison and competitiveness with others. So lots of little things to discuss here, so let's kind of go through it one at a time.

So when I think of seeking validation or wanting to feel appreciated and this starting to come from outside sources, this is where I would say most people are kind of familiar with the idea of we want to avoid the reliance on external sources for validation. Now, when we rely on external validation, this is not a positive thing, but receiving external validation can be extremely valuable to our overall psyche because it does contribute to our self esteem

and our self-confidence. However, I would say that, you know, I'm just going to throw at a number, I would say like a 7030 split, maybe maybe an 8020 split where most of our feeling of acknowledgement and and appreciation comes from ourselves, where we feel pride, we feel appreciated by ourselves and we give ourselves the recognition we deserve.

And then, you know, we get a little sprinkle of this 2030% of other people like noticing like, oh, wow, that's amazing, congratulations. Or that's so you should be so proud of yourself. This type of stuff. I think that can be a really contributing or positive contributing process to our overall experience to feel this pride, to be able to focus on building our capabilities, our self esteem, our self-confidence in a healthy way.

Now, if of course, if the the the reliance of appreciation is on the external world, call it social media, call it the people around us, family members, these types of things, I would say it can be very difficult to keep that as a motivating factor if we don't actually get it, which means you might actually run out of steam without the fuel of the external world saying good job.

So being able to cultivate our own fire, our own steam so that we can keep going while allowing some contributing factors for the external world to give us that validation, I think would would be a more positive overall approach.

So I kind of used a bit of this to figure out ways in which how can we kind of navigate this where we're avoiding perfectionism, we're avoiding burnout, we're avoiding the ability to focus on, or I should say, associating ourselves with success, comparison, competitiveness.

How do we kind of avoid all this stuff at the same time? So ultimately, I'd say in order to cultivate a healthier, more sustainable form of self appreciation, focusing on internal validation and self recognition is really the key, which is why I gave it a 70 to 80% focus.

So we can do this by very simple, and some of this might seem familiar, but setting personal goals and celebrating small wins. So setting and achieving personal goals, even small ones, can really boost your own self appreciation without needing that external validation.

Now these accomplishments remind us of our capabilities and our resilience, which reinforces our self-confidence. Now when I think about goals and I think about small wins and stuff like that, and I think about how, you know, there are benefits to like making yourselves accountable by like sharing that I have this personal goal or sharing that this thing happened. And then, you know, obviously some recognition might come through.

But to me, I think maybe that should only happen after you've already done the intrinsic work or you've already kind of gave, given yourself the recognition, the self appreciation that you deserve. And then you kind of open yourself to sharing it with possibly the world with the people around you. And then, you know, just kind of filling up that last 20 or 30% of validation, which will just contribute more to that self-confidence.

Now, bringing this back to my experience with Nepal, whenever I went through this trek and I kind of got to the top and I felt all this stuff and it kind of reflected on it. And, you know, I wasn't taking photos and video.

I mean, I was taking photos and videos, but it was mostly for my own, my own library. Let's say I wasn't posting it on Instagram. I wasn't really sharing it too much. I might have shared a couple things or if someone was tagging me, I might have like put it there, but I didn't have this like focus or this drifty to be like, I'm doing this to show the world that I'm doing this.

I was doing it because I wanted to do it for myself. I wanted to do it to show that I could overcome this challenge and to do something really special in the world. And this is a big goal and a big challenge, of course, but the point is more so about how I was focusing on my own self recognition. And eventually, I mean, I still haven't posted anything about it, but eventually I started to share it with people. Like I did this thing and it was super cool and people would ask me about it.

And you know, it's a little bit of that self appreciate. Excuse me, the external appreciation started to come in, right? But before I had done all that, I'd kind of done my own work intrinsically. And I think that's where a lot of the power comes from is like not opening yourself up to that external validation without having a foundation of your own self appreciation first, an important factor. So the next thing that I think about is practicing self compassion.

So instead of waiting for external acknowledgement, you practice the self kindness and give yourself the credit you deserve, which is kind of what I said, but embracing self talk that encourages you to basically recognize what you have done rather than to criticize. Maybe it's related to like, oh, I didn't quite reach the goal or, or, you know, I didn't do it as well as I thought or I, you know, it was a lot harder than I was expecting it to be. And like, now, now you're

getting into this negative self talk, this criticism, which is also probably correlated back to that perfectionism. It's like, first of all, perfectionism is just something that a lot of people face. So we need to have compassion.

We probably have compassion for other people, but how do we have compassion for ourselves when we push ourselves in such a way to the point where even if we overcome challenges, even if we overcome goals and we reach goals, there doesn't seem to be this validation. There seems to be this like, oh, you could have done better kind of thing.

So practicing self compassion has been shown to strengthen your emotional resilience and foster a positive relationship with yourself. So that's the second thing that comes to mind. The third one is building self-awareness through, through, through reflection.

Excuse me. So this is kind of what I had done when I, I had gotten to the top of the mountain. I didn't actually know what I was experiencing. I just kind of was experiencing it. And it was only afterwards that I started to reflect on it.

So this self reflection can be done in different ways. It can be done through meditation, it can be done through journaling depending on how you operate as an individual. But it allows you to recognize your growth, your strengths, and your values.

So reflecting on what makes you feel proud without needing others input is going to help you build your confidence and your observations of what confidence is. The next one is developing skills that actually matter to you. So cultivating or choosing challenges that are actually important to you.

So this is a great way to focus on that self appreciation because if you're setting goals that you think other people are going to appreciate or you think that your parents are going to be like, oh, this, that's amazing that you're doing that.

And this can be related to professional work, you know, so many different things. By doing that, you're not actually going to be cultivating the self appreciation. You're you're literally going to be doing it only for external validation or external appreciation.

So make sure to engage in activities or choose challenges or skills or whatever you're working towards that is going to resonate with your own values. That's going to help to build confidence by aligning your actions with the inner sense of purpose. This kind of intrinsic motivation, this internal motivation is going to foster your own genuine self respect. So make sure to develop these skills or choose challenges that actually matter to you.

And then the last one that I have, and this is just an extra note, is just practicing gratitude for your own self achievements. Practicing gratitude, it doesn't necessarily only apply to external events. It can include gratitude for your own efforts, your traits, and your growth, right? This helps you to appreciate yourself in a balance and an internal way.

So in a situation where we're facing a challenge or we set a goal and perhaps the goal was achieved or maybe it wasn't achieved right, This is kind of the area where we want to be mindful of. Not focusing too much on perfectionism or trying to push ourselves to burnout and even though we probably shouldn't go the whole way or over identifying with the success of like, if I don't achieve this, if I don't get this goal, then I'm not successful.

These kinds of things or comparing to someone else, oh, this other person did it so I need to do it. Some of the stuff can be motivating in a healthy way, but it can also be toxic as well. So I think it's important to practice gratitude overall for what you've done or what you have accomplished up to a particular point.

And that is going to help to, again, cultivate more of that self appreciation. Now specifically if I were to talk about things like perfectionism, I have a few notes here so I'll just read them off. So perfectionism is ultimately when accomplishments become the primary measure of self worth, right?

The accomplishment itself is saying I'm worthy because I did this thing. So there's a tendency to set unrealistic high standards in this situation, which can lead to perfectionism. So this can create a constant pressure to perform at peak levels, making it difficult to feel good enough or feel content.

Now in a training that we're currently talking in right now in Bali, we talked a little bit more about how achieving or high successful people, particularly in sport, often have an associated trauma or emotional wound associated with this motivation, motivational factor. You know, so high, high performing athletes, I would say even professional athletes, often times the reason why they have such a strong drive to be better, to be able to, you know, cultivate their skills as a, as

an athlete is because behind it, they have this measure of self worth that if I don't do it, I'm not worthy. If I don't do it, I'm not worthy. If I don't do this, if I don't achieve this, I'm not worthy. And while on the outside for us, it might seem like, Oh my God, they're so successful, they're such a pro athlete, deep down inside, they're being motivated by these external factors, which I would say is unhealthy. So not to go too far into that,

but I think the solution here is to focus on the process as much as the outcome, which I'm sure you've heard before. Not so much the goal, but the, the way in which you're getting there or the the the process in which you took to get there.

Appreciating your efforts, the learning and the growing that come from working towards a goal, even if the end result is maybe not met or not necessarily flawless. Now risking burnout or I would say pushing ourselves a little too far so constantly pushing to the point of wanting to achieve more can lead to physical and mental mental what we call burnout. This often happens when people feel they need to achieve to maintain self worth, which can result in overworking, neglecting other areas of their

life like rest, relationships and hobbies. Which is a pretty common thing I would say in the yoga world for needing to teach yoga so many classes a week to be able to sub all this type of stuff. But just in everyday life as well. Like I would say a lot of this is just cultivated with needing to prove ourselves and maybe it's out of survival sometimes to like actually make enough money to be able to do something.

But I would say that the solution here is pretty simple as to prioritize balance. It's right setting boundaries in building in downtime or activities that are not accomplishment orientated. This helps to maintain energy in perspective. So ways in which we can cultivate what we call the power of shavasana, the power of rest, so that we're not always on the go go go stimulated hamster wheel, but also finding time for stillness, which is going to allow us to do the other things like self reflection, journaling

and possibly reflecting on what we've done and focusing on the process of versus the goal. So being able to actually stop and do that. And now relating to over identifying with success. So when people base their identity on their accomplishments, they may struggle to separate they are from what they do.

So this can make setbacks or failures feel overwhelming and personal, as if they define one's entire self worth. So identifying with success, identifying with the accomplishments, and separating who you are versus what you do because what you do is not who you are.

I think that's really the main thing here. So the solution is just to develop a holistic view or self view by nurturing different aspects of your identity, your identity like relationships and values and personal interests alongside of the achievements. So it's good to have these achievements, it's good to have these goals and to focus towards them. But recognize that that's not all that you are, right? So for some people that just that's, you know, it's, it's all they go for is to achieve,

achieve, tick the box, achieve, tick the box. How can we bring more balance into that in such a way where there's more holistic view? So focus on those other things, relationships, your value, use your personal interests.

In this way, self worth becomes more balanced and resilient. And then the other one that I had written here is comparison and competitiveness. So when accomplishments become the primary source of self esteem, it's easy to fall into the trap of comparing ourselves to others.

So we don't want our accomplishments to become the primary source. So this can lead to feelings of inadequacy if one perceives others as more successful or more accomplished, or they were able to do it and I wasn't able to do it, or they're ahead of me and I'm not quite there yet or something like this. So this is a tricky one.

This is a tricky one. It's again related to self worth, of course, right. So there's there could be some underlying factors here that is going to be different for each individual. But at the end of the day, the solution is already been mentioned.

And that's just to practice gratitude for your own journey and to celebrate your personal growth rather than relative achievement. So comparing progress only against oneself can foster a healthier, more sustainable confidence. So here are just a few ideas and pieces of information that I've been kind of sitting with over the last few weeks since I've done my trip to Nepal.

And even though I kind of went through my own process and did it my way, I didn't actually know a lot of the stuff that we talked about today. I was just kind of like doing it. And I think I did a pretty good job. I wasn't really focusing too much on a lot of these negative things and the achievements and comparison, and I wasn't posting things on social media.

So I, you know, I'm proud of myself, right? I'll say that I feel very proud of myself and I wanted to share because I feel like this is something that's valuable for other people to focus on when they're working towards certain goals. Now I do have, I think a few processes that can help. So here we go.

So in order to basically build confidence through self appreciation that encourages healthy internal growth with a small amount of measured external validation so we can focus on steady self recognition while avoiding some of these common pitfalls like perfectionism, burnout, excessive comparison. I have a few steps here.

So step one, setting small purposeful goals. So each week, setting one or two small achievable goals based on your values, skills, or personal growth, rather than aiming only for success markers, Right. Each week setting one to two achievable goals based on your values, skills, or personal growth rather than aiming for success markers.

This could be anything from completing a task, practicing a new skill, or improving something that is meaningful to you. Why? Small goals minimize the risk of perfectionism and burnout, keeping you focused on manageable actions rather than overwhelming expectations, which is basically a way of saying we're, we're trying to manage the amount of stress coming in.

So small purposeful goals, intentional goals is a great way to start. Step 2 is to practice daily self recognition. So this could be a, you know, reflective journal, meditation, but at the end of the day, listing three things that you're proud of what you did that day.

These don't have to be big achievements. They can be small acts of kindness, a step towards a goal, a moment where you showed resilience or creativity, but actually giving yourself that appreciation. This habit shifts the focus to recognizing your efforts and your values and reinforces a sense of worth and independence away from external outcomes. OK, Step 3.

Celebrate your effort. Overcome. Sorry. Celebrate your effort that you've overcome. When you reach a goal or feel proud of something, take a moment to appreciate your effort, resilience, and learning that went into it. Maybe the steps are the process in which you went through it.

Consider journaling if that's your style, meditating or just sitting in stillness and reflecting about the process rather than the actual end result. Especially because sometimes, you know, even if we set a goal for the day or maybe the week or the month, we might not actually achieve that goal within that day or that week or that month.

But that's OK, right? We're focusing on the process as much as possible. So this approach keeps the emphasis on growth and prevents over identifying with success. So it helps us appreciate what we've learned, making the journey as rewarding as the destination.

So celebrating effort over outcome step #4 is to seek occasional external feedback, right? So if you like some validation, ask for feedback from a trusted friend, mentor or colleague. Someone who you trust, someone who you know that the source is reliable, who can give you constructive and balanced insights.

This external validation should be seen as supportive rather than defining right? It's going to add to it, not define it. And this kind of goes back to that creating that foundation of self appreciation first before external, external validation or external feedback.

Step #5 is to reflect weekly with a growth check in. So if you're doing daily tasks or sorry, daily purposeful goals or maybe weekly personal goals, reflect back on the day, reflect back on the week with a growth check in.

You can think of it that way. At the end of the week, reflect on your personal growth, learning experiences and moments of gratitude. Maybe you have it in a journal. Maybe you've taken notes after meditation and ask yourself, what did I learn this week? Where did I grow?

Where was I challenged and I was able to overcome? Or where was I challenged and I felt stuck? And avoid focusing only on what you achieved. This type of reflection helps to measure growth over time, but not necessarily comparing to others, but by seeing your own progress. And it's a reminder that confidence builds through experience and not just through accomplishments, right? Small steps can lead to big change. So step number six is focus on joyful activities, a balance of the work and the play.

So this is kind of relating to avoiding probably burnout, right? Dedicating time each week to activities you enjoy purely for the experience, such as hobbies, relaxation, or being with friends and family so that you're you're your life is just not overcoming goals.

Your life is just not doing tasks, right? Because engaging in activities for pleasure rather than productivity reduces the likelihood of burnout and reminds you that self worth doesn't depend solely on achievement, right? Being in a world where productivity and being efficient and go go go is kind of rewarded. We need to reward ourselves to do somewhat of the opposite, to actually have more balance and do things that are for pleasure rather than productivity.

Step #7 is to limit your social comparison and to track your own personal growth, right? Don't worry about other people focusing on your own. So when you find yourself comparing to others, use that moment to reflect on something unique that you're working on or excited about in your own life.

Keeping a simple growth journal if that's your style, where you write monthly reflections on your progress and how you've improved in areas that that matter to you. Because focusing on your journey in recording your growth over time shifts your attention inward and self recognition rather than those external outcomes.

So here's some of the steps. I'll put them in the show notes, show notes, or at least the short versions of them. You'll see the chapter notes if you want to come back, but otherwise very quickly. Step one, set small, purposeful goals. Step 2, practice daily self recognition. Build that foundation.

Step three, over sorry, celebrate effort over outcome. And Step 4, seek occasional external feedback. Right. Giving yourself that little extra 2030% just to help build a little bit more of that self-confidence, but not relying on it.

Step #5 reflect weekly or maybe monthly with a growth check in Step 6, focus on joyful activities, a balance of work and play, and step #7 limit your social comparison and track your own personal growth. So I hope that this is something that's going to help bring some more insight into the way that you operate and the way in which you might be able to focus on getting more of this sensation or feeling of pride in your life and not necessarily relying on other people.

And the last thing I'll say, which I kind of mentioned at the beginning, is just because I think this is interesting. It's just the chemical changes that actually happened in your body when we start to experience pride or self appreciation.

So dopamine, which is something that we're familiar with, is often referred to as the reward chemical. Dopamine is released in response to positive outcomes like achieving a goal or raising praise or receiving praise. Excuse me. So this is something that obviously is very positive. This releases and reinforces the behavior making us feel good and encourages similar actions in the futures. So it's essentially for motivation and drives the feeling of pleasure and reward

that accompanies the pride. Serotonin. Known for its role in good mood regulation, Serotonin also supports feelings of self worth and confidence. So high serotonin levels are often associated with a positive outlook and a strong sense of self worth.

When we achieve something or recognize our own self worth keyword there recognize our own self worth. Serotonin release happens and helps us to maintain a happy and healthy and calm state. Oxytocin though commonly linked with bonding and social connection, Oxytocin, oxytocin, oxytocin, oxy. I feel like I'm not saying that right is also released when we achieve sorry.

When we receive acknowledgement from others, it helps strengthen self appreciation as the validation or support from others boosts our sense of belonging and reinforces pride. In turn, this can enhance self esteem and self-confidence.

And then of course, endorphins. These are released as part of the body's natural pain and stress management system, which can lead to mild high and euphoric feelings, especially when we experience self satisfaction and pride or accomplishment. And they help to reduce stress and enhance feelings of happiness.

So a few chemical changes that happen in the body, which is basically making sense of how I felt when I was on the top of this mountain. And even though I had such a rush of this feeling, which was probably combined with feeling the sense of relief to me, I felt, how can I cultivate more of this? And I actually became motivated to do more, right? Not necessarily climb more mountains, but I was like, I want to be able to set more goals for myself. So that's how I came up with

this little system. So I hope it was helpful for you. Please let me know how this episode landed for you. I very rarely will do these one solo episodes and feedback is really helpful because I don't have someone across the table to let me know how it goes.

So please reach out to me either on Instagram or podcast at going Pro Yoga e-mail and I'd love to hear from you. Otherwise, I hope you have a beautiful day, beautiful rest of your week and we will speak to you next week.

Take care. All right, before you go, let me just tell you about the goingproyoga.com platform. So right now you can go to goingproyoga.com and check it out for free for seven days, where you can actually learn more about yoga in the ways of alignment, queuing, sequencing, yoga anatomy. So that if you've done a 200 hour teacher training and you want to continue to learn, practice and grow, this platform is definitely for you.

So I definitely suggest checking it out. goingproyoga.com right now. You can try it out for free for seven days.