“If I talked to you the way you talked to yourself,
would you still be my friend?” Dave Blanchard, The Chair
What would you do if you had someone following you around all day screaming something negative at you every 12 seconds? Every 12 seconds all day, every day.
Guess what??? You Do!!!
And in case you are wondering, those numbers are real for the average person.
Self-talk… What is it and why do you care?
Self-talk is your inner dialogue. It runs from the time you wake till you go to sleep. You know who I am talking about… It is that voice that will remind you how good you are AND it is that voice that will scream at you when it thinks you have done something wrong- whether real or imagined. It is a voice that can be very cruel. To be honest, I refer to mine as an Inner A-hole because of how he treats me at times. If I don’t control him, he can be very vicious to me and my self-esteem.
If you have gotten this far you are probably wondering “why should I care? This is a little too touchy feely for my tastes.” Well, I am here to tell you this is a very important but significantly under-appreciated topic. How you talk to yourself does have a very definite impact on you in ways you may not recognize until too late. With the growing emphasis on self-care, this topic should play a prominent part in your self-care.
I encourage you to take a moment to actively listen to how you talk to yourself. What are you saying to yourself when you look in the mirror? What do you hear in those quiet moments when you do listen to yourself? Take the time to actively control your dialogue. Take the time to change any negative repeating conversations to something more positive. This will feel really weird and awkward at first and second and third time you do it. The point is to keep at it.
That is your challenge this week. Take some time and just listen. Listen to what you are saying to yourself. Is it more positive or more negative? Then actively take the time and make the effort to reinforce or refocus the way you talk to yourself. When you make this effort, you just may surprise yourself with the effort needed and the results over time. I promise you, this is an effort that will only yield positive results in all areas of your life. I assure you this is not an exaggerated promise- this effort will result in positive growth in all areas of your life.
I hope this has been meaningful to you. If you would like to learn more about my new journey, please check me out, https://masonvandyke.com/
Leave a Reply