Negative Self Talk

We are often our own worst critics, but negative self talk is more than just a bad habit. Not only can negative self talk bring down your mood and severely impact your self esteem and confidence, it can also impact your spiritual development and attract negativity in your life. What we focus on is what we attract or manifest in our lives, and if you're always talking down to yourself and focusing on your perceived faults, these things can become your reality!

Breaking the habit of negative self talk can take a lot of practice, especially if you've been doing it for a long time. Often the best way to defeat negative self talk is with logic and reason. You need to explore your negative self talk, which is often easier and more effective when done through journaling. If you write it down you'll be able to look back on your journal entries later and benefit from them more than once.

The first step is to write down the negative things you're saying to or about yourself, and then examine if these are opinions or facts. Facts are things we have the power to change! For example, you might be prone to saying to yourself, "I'm fat," but does your Body Mass Index indicate that you are overweight? Once you know if the negative statement is a fact or an opinion you can move onto the next step.

If the negative statement is a fact, you need to ask yourself if there's a better way to look at it or say it. Instead of "I'm fat" you can say to yourself "I'm overweight," for example. After finding a healthier way to look at and say the fact, you need to explore what you can do to change it. If the negative statement is an opinion, you need to focus on the facts. For example, if your Body Mass Index indicates that you're a healthy weight (or even underweight) then the fact is actually "I feel fat," and you can start working to change that fact. (Sometimes it's a little harder to break down your negative self talk than in this example and it may take more than one step. If you say to yourself, "I'm not good enough" you need to break it down further by asking why you believe that.)

Once you have broken your negative self talk down to the facts, it's time to create an action plan for changing those facts. For example, if you are overweight you can plan a healthier diet and steps you can take to live a more active lifestyle. Your emotions, such as "I feel fat," are facts that can be more difficult to change than eating better and exercising more--but it can be done! Come up with a plan to change the facts and get to work on it. If you're actively working to change it, you can stop the negative self talk by reminding yourself that you're doing something about it.

When you've been in the habit of negative self talk for a long time, it will be even harder to break but it's important that you keep at it. By focusing on the facts and working to change them, you will improve your self talk, self esteem and confidence all at once! You'll feel a great deal better about yourself, plus your positivity will change your reality and help you manifest more positive and healthier things.

~*~Monica Who~*~