Power Positive Thinking: Three Simple Tips to Stop Negative Self Talk
Power positive thinking is the ability to take control of your self talk.
You talk to yourselves all day long and not just the mental chatter about activities and chores that you need to remember throughout the day, although those are forms of self-talk. I’m referring more to the things you say to yourself on a regular basis without realization;and more importantly, the tone in which you say them. This is negative self talk but by learning the art of power positive thinking you can eliminate negative self talk forever.
First, you must become aware of your thoughts. Power positive thinking is dependent upon being aware of your negative thoughts.
When you make a mistake, do you automaticly scold yourself? Do you put yourself down or call yourself critical names? When you have a hard time making positive changes in your life, do you tell yourself what a “worthless” person you are and complain that you never do anything right?
Negative self-talk can be incredibly damaging to your self-esteem, especially if it’s a big part of your daily life. When you keep saying things like that to yourself, eventually you begin to believe them!
Most often these messages begin as statements an adult said to you when you were just a child. They may have said something negative to you when you did something wrong or they weren't happy about, perhaps they had a habit of saying unkind things even when you didn’t deserve it. As painful as these experiences can be, the real danger is when you pick up where they left off and keep repeating the same negative messages to yourself over and over!
The good news is that you can change your self-talk any time you want with positive thinking. You just have to know how to become aware of the messages and the tone of the message and consciously replace them with positive ones.
Try these simple steps for starters:
- Develop an awareness of your self-talk. It may take practice, but if you keep “listening” in to your inner voice, you’ll begin to notice when you talk negatively to yourself.
- Challenge the negative messages. When you notice yourself saying something negative such as, “You’re such an idiot, you can’t do anything right” – stop yourself and challenge that belief. Is that really true? Maybe you make a mistake sometimes, but do you ALWAYS screw up? Doubt it.
- Replace the negative message with a positive message. When you realize you’re saying something negative to yourself, simply turn it around in your mind. Using the above example, you might say, “Stop, that’s not true at all! I do plenty of things right. Everyone makes mistakes and I am no different. I’m a good person and I try my best. That’s good enough for me.” You may want to keep a list of accomplishments, good deeds and positive adjectives that describe you near by so that it becomes easy to replace negative self talk with power positive thinking.
Over time, your efforts will pay off in the form of stronger self-esteem and respect for yourself and your capabilities. It probably won’t happen overnight, but the more you work at turning your self-talk into power positive thinking, the better you’ll feel about yourself.
As always be well,
Colleen
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