MAINTAINING a positive outlook can lead to various benefits to your confidence, resilience and overall well-being. Just ask anyone who has chosen to live mindfully, and they will tell you that positivity fosters self-assurance, helping a person believe in themselves and their abilities.

What are the things that you changed in your life that made you feel better?

Alice, 54:

I stopped going to church, and instead spend time with God in my own space and my own time. Church was getting too divisive, and when my daughter came out to me, I had to rethink everything I had known before to be true. I couldn’t cast my child aside the way my church would want me to, and when I met her partner, I was even more convinced that in the end, love and acceptance are all that matter. Strangely, thinking differently and adopting positive thinking instead of the hell and brimstone and Sodom and Gomorrah stuff has made me have lower stress levels and overall improved mental and physical health.

Crystal, 33:

My mother died suddenly, and life ended as I knew it. Literally. Absolutely nothing mattered to me after that — no job and the demands, nothing people said, because I realised that in losing the one person in the world that I was close to, nothing else mattered. Strangely, after that heartbreak everything changed for the better. Instead of being constantly stressed, I just live my life to the fullest. And I’m happier with myself than I’ve ever been, and I fear nothing. It’s happy and sad at the same time though. I’m more carefree, but I also don’t care.

Dor, 37:

I started exercising. At first it was to lose my belly, but then I felt so alive after. I also adjusted my diet and I’m a different person. It’s not just that I’m thinner, somehow I feel like superwoman, because I was able to take control of this one area of my life and be successful, when the whole world is going crazy.

Melanie, 41:

I left the relationship that was draining me, even though I was scared as hell. But one day I woke up and watched a Tik Tok video where a woman was outlining how we should expect to be treated, and I realised that it was time to choose me and stop pretending that I was in a good relationship. I quit cold turkey and It has been a year and I have never been happier.

Shantelle, 30:

I would look at myself in the mirror and criticise everything. One day I got an e-mail from my bank that I was pre-approved for a loan, and literally on the same day, I saw an ad on Insta from a plastic surgeon. I took the loan and paid for liposuction and scar revision, and also went to a dermatologist for my skin. I also do monthly-self care, and I can say that the confidence boost is like nothing else. I don’t care that I’m in debt because I’m paying on the loan monthly, but nothing else could have given me confidence like this investment in myself.