By Georgia Mahony

Confidence is often described as self-belief, but at its core, confidence is really about self-trust.

It grows through self-awareness, emotional connection, and the quality of relationship you have with yourself. And at the heart of that relationship is Emotional Intelligence (EQ).

The dictionary defines confidence as “a feeling of trust, self-belief, and certainty.”

That definition reveals something important.

Because confidence begins with self-awareness. And self-awareness is the foundation of EQ.

So how do you build confidence? 

The good news is it isn’t something you either have or don’t have. It’s something you can develop, deepen, and grow.

Your Body Is Always Talking to You

Your brain and body are in constant conversation. In fact, there are significantly more messages travelling from your body to your brain than the other way around. Research shows that around 80% of the communication travelling through the vagus nerve moves from body to brain. The vagus nerve is one of the body’s main communication pathways, carrying information between the brain, heart, lungs, and digestive system, helping your brain interpret how you feel physically and emotionally.

Your body is constantly sending signals through sensation, tension, expansion, energy, emotion, and intuition.

You’ve felt it before:

• Ease when something feels aligned
• Tightness when something feels off
• Warmth and aliveness around an opportunity
• Heaviness around something you’ve outgrown
• Groundedness when you feel certain in yourself

These are sensations, and they are not random. They’re information.

Research in neuroscience shows that emotions and physical sensations are deeply connected to decision-making, behaviour, and our sense of certainty.

“Emotions are messengers. When we listen, we lead.”

The more fluent you become in the language of your body, the more clearly you understand yourself.

EQ Builds the Trust You Have in Yourself

Emotional Intelligence is the ability to recognise, understand, and work with your emotions. It’s learning the language of your inner world.

When you can identify what you’re feeling, and understand what that feeling is communicating, you begin to trust yourself more deeply.

You start to know:

• What feels right for you
• What you actually need
• Where your boundaries are
• What environments help you thrive
• What kind of support and growth you’re drawn to

That’s where confidence is born. In connection with yourself.

A 2025 study on nurses found that higher emotional intelligence was strongly associated with greater self-efficacy (our belief in our ability to handle challenges) and more confidence when making decisions under pressure.

One of our EQ coaching academy students described it like this: 

“Before Unaggi, I thought confidence was something you either had or didn’t have, perhaps by life circumstances or by having “better” skill sets than someone like me.

Learning that confidence is something you can actually build, grow and work on within yourself was revolutionary for me. 

My confidence may not ever be naturally sky-high, but it has increased significantly because I now know how to support myself through difficult moments. So when I’m having a bad day,I now have tools and tactics to bring that self-efficacy back. 

Past me would have really struggled to put herself out there and go for a job interview. New me trusts my instincts, trusts that I need a new environment, believes in my strengths, and no longer carries the same fear of failure I once had.” 

Confidence Lives in Your Relationship With Yourself

Confidence is something you build from the inside.

It grows when you:

• Recognise the sensations that tell you what you’re feeling
• Listen to your emotions
• Honour your needs
• Recognise your patterns
• Own your strengths
• Support yourself through discomfort

EQ gives you the tools to do all of that. It teaches you to respond to your inner world with curiosity and compassion. Over time, that creates an internal sense of safety. A steadiness that stays with you.

That’s grounded confidence. Calm. Connected. Secure. 

Why This Matters in Life and Work

Confidence shapes the way we communicate, lead, make decisions, build relationships, and respond to challenges.

When we don’t trust ourselves, we often second-guess our decisions, avoid difficult conversations, overthink, people-please, or look externally for reassurance.

When we develop Emotional Intelligence, we become more aware of what we’re feeling, what we need, and how we want to respond. That awareness creates clarity, steadiness, and trust in ourselves.

In life, this can look like:

• setting healthier boundaries
• communicating more honestly
• feeling more secure in who you are
• navigating emotions with greater self-awareness
• making decisions that feel aligned

In work, it can look like:

• leading with greater emotional awareness
• staying grounded under pressure
• communicating with confidence
• building stronger relationships and trust
• responding thoughtfully instead of reacting emotionally

Confidence influences how we show up in every area of our lives. And Emotional Intelligence gives us the tools to build it from the inside out.

The More You Know Yourself, the More You Trust Yourself

Self-knowledge strengthens confidence.

“We are not thinking machines that feel; we are feeling machines that think.”
— Dr. Antonio Damasio

When you understand your emotions and learn to listen to the signals within your body, you strengthen your most important relationship: the one with yourself.

You become more attuned to your intuition, your values, your voice, your vision, and your needs.

From that place, confidence becomes something you genuinely feel.

A grounded certainty.
A trust in yourself that stays with you.

This isn’t just personal development. It’s science.

Emotions influence every decision we make, the actions we take, and the way we experience ourselves and the world around us.

Emotional Intelligence is a skill set you can measure, practicse, and strengthen.

The question isn’t:

“Am I a confident person?”

It’s:

“Am I ready to develop the self-awareness that builds confidence?”

If you are, or you’d simply like to explore it further, you can book a free coaching session with one of our founders below.