Increase my self-confidence

Increasing self-confidence proves to be a very hard task. I don’t know if it’s my (way too) humble nature (only stating fact).
I fear to appear proud, self-satisfied while trying to feel confident.

Finally got out of the house. My friend and I decided to visit the library where there is an acoustic guitar and I heard her play. Then we asked for permission to play on the grand piano, I was a little nervous, because it was amidst the most peaceful silence of a library and the instrument needed tuning, the pedal didn’t work either. However, three people got curious enough to approach me and their compliments were very flattering. I’m self-taught and I’ve never considered myself as good, but one of them came to me to ask whether I had published a CD or two. I was stunned to say the least. It makes me want to spend more time practicing and I feel encouraged to play again next time when I stop by now I realize that there I’m probably quite good at it.

I have no clue what to do to show my true nature and increase my confidence. I only know that I need to do this.
When I was in Beijing I used to be a very extroverted and popular girl with many friends, but moving to a certain country in Europe managed to change that. For three years I was an invisible girl, my classmates never mocked me openly, but they snickered, spread fake rumours and simply ignored my presence. It didn’t help that I got good grades. So I became introverted, quiet and my self-esteem was very low.
Now I have new classmates and we get along, but I still can’t overcome my shyness, I always fear being different will make me a loner.

I am not quite confident about myself lately. Every time I am doing something, I always remember the things that I failed doing and it affects me tremendously.
I hope that I can find a way to relieve me of my past failures so I can move on.