Jane has spent the entire morning working on a
project for her upcoming presentation. She is in a terrible mood because
she knows that her presentations never goes well. She knows she is always
making mistakes and can't seem to get anything right. Jane like many of
us has a self-dialogue going on in her head that is negative and self-defeating.
This is called negative self talk. We
are constantly talking to ourselves throughout the day. This negative self talk
could have come from a parent, teacher or boss in the past and now you are repeating
what they may have made you believe about yourself. This can also come from doubting your
abilities and questioning your resilience.
So the question is how does Jane, you or I
begin to change this behavior? I will show you an exercise that you can
begin that will help you to reverse this negative self talk. Remember at
first it may take more concentration and time but after a while you will be able to recognize the negative self talk and change it to a positive self talk. You have the choice
to change and move forward to success and happiness.
The first step is to become more aware of when you
are doing this negative self talk. When you hear yourself using negative self
talk tell yourself something like stop or that's not right. Once you have said
stop think of a positive way to look at it, use works like I can. Don't
look back say in the present and keep telling yourself you can succeed, you are
a winner. One of the key elements of this is to stay in the present
moment. Fear comes from the past and anxiety from the future.
Continue to tell yourself you are great and reaffirm positive thoughts and emotions. It
may feel uncomfortable at first but with practice this will become second
nature. Remember you are the only one that can or can't do something the
choice is in your mind.
Before you know it your self talk will be positive
and when negative self talk enters you will be able to recognize it and change
it to positive self talk. Happy Thoughts
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