Breaking Up with Negative Self-Talk
How to Improve Your Overall Mood and Mental Well-Being
By: Madyson Callion
As we settle into our new year routines, there is a part of our day-to-day routine that we might not pay attention to but causes a significant effect on our overall mood and mental well-being. This is your self-talk, and it’s the talk that you have about yourself that exists in your head. Self-talk is unavoidable; it comes out constantly throughout the day. It is very important that this self-talk remains positive and constructive because of the detrimental effects negative self-talk can have on you.
Negative self-talk can cause more damage mentally over time than you would think. Negative self-talk can be anything from insulting anything about yourself to placing a negative mindset around your appearance, personality, and anything related to you. Negative self-talk can stem from an activity as simple as buying a new outfit and trying it on. Your immediate reaction may be confidence, but then negative self-talk seeps in and makes you denigrate yourself. Negative self-talk affects you consciously and subconsciously because though you may be able to eventually correct it, the lasting effects of your own talk will affect you throughout the day. This is why it’s important to make correcting and eventually eradicating negative self-talk a muscle-memory action. Here are 5 tips you can use to help usher in positive self-talk and eradicate negative self-talk.
Meditation to start your day. Meditation is a great way to center yourself and your headspace before you start your day. Meditation can also be a great way to usher in the routine of positive self-talk as many meditations contain positive affirmations that can be used throughout the day. Also if you start your journey with meditation and find you're struggling with it, don’t worry! Meditation is a practice that you can only improve upon with time.
Sticky note reminders. While phone reminders can be great, your phone can also be a catalyst for negative self-talk. Try to unplug by bringing your affirmations into your physical space. Place affirmations on common areas in your living space that you would see when going about your day or right when you wake up or right before you go to sleep. These can be very effective in halting negative thoughts and starting your day off positively. Pro tip: Place them on your mirrors! That way you can associate your affirmations with your physical appearance!
Don’t want to use sticky notes everywhere? Download affirmation apps or place reminders on your phone. Setting reminders that have affirmations ensures you can place them in your daily routine and have them be a consistent part of your day. This also means you can place them in pain points of your day, when you know you don’t feel as confident or you’ve identified that’s when negative thoughts rise up the most. If you can’t come up with your own affirmations download the “I am” app, it is free on the App Store and generates affirmations as notifications that appear sporadically across each day. Since these are random each time, it’s always a nice surprise when they come.
Make a beautiful attribute list. This is very similar to affirmations but focuses your mind on what you know you already love about yourself. Maybe you’re a rockstar at listening? Or you look amazing in the color blue? It can be anything you love about yourself or think you’re great at. By being able to visualize how many positive aspects of yourself you already love, you can change your negative self-talk. If you can’t change it on your own, pull out that beautiful attribute list and remember how amazing you are!
If you get through and utilize all of these tips and still find yourself in the negative self-talk, it may also be a good idea to talk about what triggers these negative thoughts with someone you trust. Gaining an outside perspective from someone can be a great way to understand how to combat them. You also may gain tips on how to usher in more positive self-talk.
The final thing to remember is that you are not alone in struggling with negative-self talk. Everyone struggles with some aspect of it, but having the ability to stomp it out and replace it with positive thoughts and energy is a vital skill that will help you in the long run.