I’m not talking about the confidence you get when you wear your favorite outfit and you feel amazing in your own skin. And I’m not talking about the confidence you get when someone tells you you’re pretty, or that you look like you’re having an amazing time in all your Instagram photos. I’m talking about the confidence that lies in the deepest places within you. The confidence to be who you were designed to be.

I have found that pursuing what I love has given me the most confidence so far, a confidence that I find difficult to describe. Granted, I am only 23, and have far more to learn about myself and what my true calling is, but figuring that out and riding the waves in the process has given me the opportunities to grow and discover who I am and what I have to offer.

Taking an hour to myself every single day to explore what I’m passionate about has allowed my low self esteem to slowly vanish. Speaking my truth, putting my truest self forward has given me more than when I was living behind someone else’s perception of who I was or I should be.

Part of our lives are wasted away in the shadow of something or someone that masks us, whether it’s their opinions or ideals. We clutch to what is comfortable and known, even if it isn’t true to who we are.

Confidence barriers aren’t just a physical thing. They don’t simply lie within the clothes you wear or the parties you go to, they lie within your pursuit of life and the relationships you have; allowing for the opportunities of self discovery, ambition, pursuit of passion, love, real conversation. Allowing truth to be a part of your life.

This is the confidence that radiates through us. This is the confidence that frees us.