Adopting positive self-talk

Self-talk is your mind's powerful inner voice that speaks to you and can have a positive or negative impact on your day to day life, impacting an individual’s self-confidence. The good news is that we do have a choice in how we talk to ourselves and learning to recognize how it makes us feel, is instrumental in changing our self- talk to be more positive.

Let’s break it down in more detail.

Positive self-talk is the dialogue we have with our self that makes us feel good about what is going on in our life. It’s the optimistic and looking on the bright side of things.

Negative self-talk is the dialogue that can cause us to feel bad about our self and may make us feel hurt, frustrated, angry and/or anxious. Negative self-talk can put a negative twist to just about anything, good or bad and it can cause us to behave in a self-defeating manner.

So how do we change our self-talk?

First, listen to what you are saying to yourself. You will probably be surprised at the content.

Next, replace negative thoughts with more positive thoughts. To do this, start keeping a thought diary which will allow you to become more conscious of your thoughts and it will be easier to come up with ideas of how to replace the negative self-talk with positive.

Finally, analyze your self-talk. Stop and ask yourself why you are criticizing yourself and redirect those thoughts to a more positive action. Positive self-talk should encourage and motivate you throughout the day and then strive on staying in that frame of mind. Continue to stay mindful of your inner voice and be as consistent as possible when redirecting negative self-talk to more positive.

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“Your beliefs become your thoughts,

Your thoughts become your words,

Your words become your actions,

Your actions become your habits,

Your habits become your values,

Your values become your destiny.”

~ Mahatma Gandhi