When it comes to personal empowerment, feeling strong and grounded is crucial. Without a perception of yourself as strong and resilient, you’ll find yourself cowering in the face of challenges; feeling intimidated by other people, and weighed down by your own fears and insecurities.

A strong person, on the other hand, knows that he or she can handle life’s challenges and triumph over any adversity.

There are four key areas where strength needs to be built in order to fully empower yourself:

Mental Strength.

Mental strength includes qualities such as clarity, focus, determination and positive self-image.

Are you confident, self-assured and proud of who you are? Do you know exactly where you’re headed in life and exactly how to get there? Do you feed your mind with positive fuel each day and push yourself to move beyond your comfort zones?

If not, you’ll want to start building your mental strength by developing a stronger focus and transforming limiting or negative thoughts. Your thoughts form the basis for your life and determine the way you see yourself in the grand scheme of things. Make it your mission to strengthen your mind, change unproductive habits and improve limiting perceptions.

Emotional Strength.

Emotional strength pertains to your level of resiliency, flexibility and your beliefs.

How well do you handle the stress of life? Do you tend to take things personally? Do you cringe when someone says something negative about you? Are you easily upset by minor conflicts? Are you afraid to assert yourself?

Emotional strength is all about being tough and resilient in the face of adversity – being flexible enough to bend without breaking, in other words. A good place to start is by making yourself feel loved and valued on a daily basis. A strong foundation of self-love and respect will help you to feel stronger, but it will also reduce your need to seek validation and acceptance from others. Also important is gaining control over your emotional state by choosing not to allow external influences to upset you. Avoid taking things personally and learn to become more self-contained, impervious to situations that threaten to upset your emotional balance. Finally, get into the habit of stepping back emotionally and challenging beliefs that don’t serve you.

Spiritual Strength.

Spiritual strength is all about feeling connected and balanced on a deeper level.

Do you have a regular spiritual practice that you engage in daily or weekly? Do you feel connected and guided by a power greater than yourself? Do you feel like your life has meaning and purpose?

This has nothing to do with religion, but everything to do with your own perception that there is more to you than your physical body. It doesn’t matter which religion you practice (or if you practice none at all) – it matters only that you choose to believe that there is a reason for your existence and you feel supported and loved by a power greater than yourself. Spend time in daily meditation or visualization to help foster a deeper connection between yourself, the universe, and others.

Physical Strength.

Physical strength may seem to be the least important of these four cornerstones of empowerment, but it is actually one of the most crucial. Have you ever noticed that people who are physically strong usually carry themselves with more confidence and feel better about themselves? When you feel strong physically, you tend to perceive the rest of you as being strong and capable too!

Are you in good physical shape? Do you eat well and exercise frequently? If not, you’ll want to take steps to get your body back into the best shape you can. Speak to your physician about starting a fitness regime, and begin treating your body like a cherished temple. Give particular attention to nutrition, rest, and self-care. As your body becomes stronger you should notice positive changes elsewhere too.

When you’re feeling unsure of yourself or your capabilities, your options in life can seem few and far between. Not only do you have trouble recognizing opportunities to improve your life, you also resist taking action and end up feeling stuck and defeated much of the time.

Empowering yourself is a simple matter of switching your perspective and choosing to believe that you are not powerless or stuck. For example, you may currently have a perception that you’re not talented or resourceful. Such a belief will keep you locked in a cycle of fear, futility and inactivity because you won’t see the point of trying to improve your life, or you’ll be too afraid to try.

Regardless of the perceptions and beliefs that may be holding you back, there are specific things you can do to transform them and embrace more empowering beliefs. Below you’ll find three easy ways to help you switch your perspective from disempowerment to empowerment:

1) Challenge your limiting beliefs and fears. The most difficult thing about perceptions is that they appear to be undeniable truth in your own mind. For example, you may have held a belief for years that you’re not good at a particular task or activity, but when you begin to explore that “truth” later, you realize that you never gave it your full effort or didn’t allow time to fully master it. Once you do, you realize that you’re capable of much more than you ever suspected!

In order to fully empower yourself, get into the habit of questioning and challenging any limiting beliefs, fears and doubts that come up about you or your capabilities. Are they really true? Why do you think so? Have you ever tried to prove them wrong? By asking questions like this and being willing to expand your perceptions, you quickly realize that you are the only one holding yourself back!

2) Affirm your strengths and capabilities frequently. Along with disempowerment usually comes a belief that you’re weak and powerless, which is simply another perception! Begin changing this perception by affirming frequently that you are strong, powerful, talented and capable. Build up yourself up with encouraging words and thoughts and you’ll begin to believe in yourself more and more each day. Over time, this belief continues to grow and you’ll be able to do things you never would have believed you were capable of before.

3) Take action. Feeling disempowered usually causes you to hold back on taking action, either because you’re frightened, or because you believe it’s futile to try to change anything. Your first impulse might be to wait until you’re feeling stronger before you take action, but did you know that taking action can make you feel stronger? That’s right, taking action can empower you!

Be willing to take action in order to build up your confidence, even if you have to take very small steps. Come up with one small action you can take, push your fear aside and then go for it! Then keep that positive cycle going by taking small action steps and moving forward bit by bit, and eventually you’ll realize that you are anything but weak and powerless!