"I can't."
Mira put down her brush. The canvas remained half white.
Sora quietly approached. "Can't what?"
"Paint. I used to be able to."
Hiyori sat beside her. "Since when couldn't you paint?"
"Since I lost the contest," Mira answered softly.
Sora opened their notebook. "You lost confidence."
"Yes."
Hiyori asked gently. "Was this your first rejection?"
"No. But this one was special," Mira continued. "The teacher said 'You can win this prize.'"
Sora pondered. "High expectations made the disappointment greater."
"Can that make you unable to paint?"
"In psychology, this is called learned helplessness," Hiyori began explaining.
"Learned helplessness?"
"Martin Seligman's research. When you repeatedly experience failure, you learn that effort is futile."
Sora supplemented. "One major failure can have the same effect. Especially when expectations were high."
Mira thought. "So I can't paint anymore?"
"No," Hiyori shook her head. "There's a reverse process too. Recovery of self-efficacy."
"Self-efficacy?"
Sora explained. "Albert Bandura's theory. The belief that 'I can do it.'"
"How do you recover it?"
Hiyori held up four fingers. "Bandura identified four sources."
"First, mastery experiences. Actually having succeeded."
"But I can't do it now," Mira said.
"That's why we start small," Sora suggested. "Not a masterpiece, but sketches."
Hiyori said the second. "Vicarious experiences. Watching others succeed."
"Watching someone else paint?"
"Yes. Especially effective when you see someone in a similar situation succeed."
Sora explained the third. "Verbal persuasion. Being encouraged by someone."
"Being told 'You can do it'?"
"However, baseless encouragement backfires," Hiyori warned. "You need specific strengths pointed out."
Mira asked. "What's the fourth?"
"Physiological and emotional states," Sora answered. "When relaxed, confidence comes more easily."
"I'm tense now."
"That might be the problem," Hiyori said. "Fear of failure is lowering your performance."
Sora drew a diagram. "In psychology, there's the Yerkes-Dodson law."
"What's that?"
"Moderate tension improves performance, but excessive tension reduces it."
Mira nodded. "When I hold the brush, my hand shakes."
"That's hypertension," Hiyori diagnosed. "Fear of evaluation is inhibiting creativity."
"What should I do?"
Sora suggested. "Let's create a space free from evaluation."
"How?"
"Paint something you won't show anyone. Something that's okay to fail."
Hiyori added. "Focus on enjoying the process. Results are secondary."
Mira took out her sketchbook. "Should I try painting now?"
"What do you want to paint?" Sora asked.
"...Flowers."
"Then let's try painting flowers in five minutes," Hiyori suggested. "Quality doesn't matter. Just paint."
Mira gripped the pencil. At first she hesitated, but gradually her hand began moving.
Five minutes later.
"Done."
Sora looked. "That's good."
"But it's bad."
"We promised not to evaluate," Hiyori smiled. "How did it feel?"
"...A little fun."
"That's important," Sora said. "Don't seek perfection, enjoy the process."
Hiyori continued. "Confidence returns through accumulating small successes."
"Today's five minutes is one success."
Mira was surprised. "This is success?"
"You held the brush, painted, and finished. That's a proper success."
Sora encouraged. "Tomorrow, one more. A little each day."
"It doesn't have to be perfect?"
"Perfectionism is the enemy of confidence," Hiyori answered. "Aim for progressivism. Just a little better than yesterday."
Mira looked at her sketch. "Behind losing confidence was perfectionism."
"Realizing that is the first step to recovery."
Sora added. "And confidence comes from action. It won't return just from thinking."
Mira opened a new page. "I'll try one more."
Hiyori and Sora smiled.
"Take your time."
"Step by step, confidence returns."
Mira's hand began moving again. Not perfect, but a certain step. That was the path to confidence recovery.