Negative Self Talk

All of us, even the most positive people (myself included!) suffer from negative self talk. You know that little niggling voice you have, inside, telling you that you can’t do something, or it’ll go bad, or any of a host of other negative little thoughts. It could be to do with your sport, your business, something important you have to do or just parts of life in general.

Have a think – when do you have negative self talk?

The negative self talk often sits within the strategy of having a stimulus (such as being asked to do a presentation), then the self talk comes in (I can’t do it!), and this is followed by a feeling, such as anxiety or even panic. The stimuli will always happen – but you don’t need to have the feeling, as you can change the strategy by changing the self talk.

Some of us can overcome this negativity and some can’t. If you find that you can’t, then have a little chat with me, it’s something that is usually easily sorted through my hypnotherapy. But first give this a go.

Recognise a time when you have the self talk. And when you do, immediately STOP! And then breathe, and then think carefully about the positive resources that you have to achieve in the context of the stimulus. Notice what happens to the feelings – I bet any feelings of anxiousness fade away, or don’t come in the first place.

This works as a pattern interrupt in your strategy. You change the self talk, and therefore change the feeling as a result.

The more times you go through the stimulus and change your negative self talk into a positive one, the easier it becomes, and its worth remembering that the mind learns quickly. After just a few times where you have stopped, breathed and thought more positively you will automatically start to not have the negative self talk – it will have been replaced by the positives.

Oh, and it is worth pointing out that this is a different process to just using affirmations. This is positive self talk within a strategy following a stimulus response – it’s much more powerful, and more appropriate for achieving better results.

Imagine how good it would be to have a positive buzz and be ready to succeed rather than feeling stress, nerves, anxiety or panic?