Negative self-talk is that little voice in the back of your head telling you how horrible life is. Sometimes that voice is quiet, but for many, it’s loud and proud. This voice is often so loud it becomes impossible to ignore and changes the way you think about yourself.
This inner voice when loud and negative only hurts us. We need to ensure the voice is soothing and has our best interests in mind. When it’s loud and negative it makes us believe we are horrible people and limits what we can do in life. Negative self-talk and staying positive
Keep reading to learn ways you can stop the negative self-talk.
Stop Negative Self-Talk by being Grateful
Gratitude for all the fantastic things you have in life is one of the best ways to stop that inner dialogue and limit the negative self-talk. Find things to appreciate in your everyday. While it’s good to appreciate our friends, family, kids, etc. These are not the things I am talking about.
Write out a list of things you are grateful for as they happen to you in the day. Maybe you are thankful your daughter ate all her breakfast without complaint, or got dressed by herself. Find the little positive moments and hold onto them. Find a safe place to write them all down throughout the day and try to get at least 10 every day.
When you are feeling especially down, go back and read through some of those moments and remember what it felt like to have those positive experiences and stop the negative self-talk.
Recognize Negative Self-Talk
When you are thinking to yourself and that inner voice is loud recognize if it’s talking in a happy upbeat tone or if it has become negative. If you can recognize the difference, then you can change the voice. We all talk to ourselves and have inner conversations all day long, but the way we talk to ourselves is often very different.
Make sure you know what your voice sounds like, and correct it when it’s getting out of line. There is no room in our heads voices that limit us, that includes ourselves. So we have to change the voice to change the future.
Learn Something New
The sense of accomplishment you get by learning something new will often be enough to stop the negative self-talk for a short time. Sometimes this is enough to stop the vicious cycle we get ourselves into. There are a lot of places you can learn something new such as YouTube or just reading articles online. Take advantage of the internet and all it has to offer.
Surround Yourself with Great People
Those we hang out with have a huge influence on our lives. If you are hanging around with people who don’t encourage and support you, consider getting new people. Now I know that sounds simple but is very hard to accomplish.
People who talk down to us, or make us feel like our ideas are bad ideas without genuine input impact our inner dialogue, and not usually in the right way. If you are surrounded by people who reinforce negative self-talk, then you are not doing yourself any favors.
One of the best things I did for myself was to join an accountability group. For me, this is a great group of businesswomen who want to succeed and help each other. There are many other groups and networks out there that can do the same thing for you. Find one that represents your people and love those people with everything you have.
Put Yourself First
All too often we get so wrapped up in helping others and doing all the things, that we forget to take care of ourselves. It’s hard to be negative when you are doing something delightful for yourself. Now, this doesn’t mean you need to spend a ton of money, you can put yourself first by taking a bath alone or painting your nails.
There are many ways to put yourself first just don’t let your inner voice make it into something negative instead stop the negative self-talk and appreciate the moment.
Wrapping It All Up
It’s time to stop negative self-talk for good. There are many ways you can do this, but it all starts with gratitude. The more grateful we are, the less likely we will find ourselves in a victim mindset and saying things like “I always mess up!” or “What’s wrong with me?”
Instead of focusing on what went wrong today or how someone else is better than us at something, take some time each day to be thankful for what we have in our lives right now. When you start looking around and seeing that there are plenty of people who would love your life if they had it instead of feeling down about yourself because “nothing ever works out,” then those thoughts will dissolve.
Are you ready to take your business from good to great? I am a coach/consultant for entrepreneurs and small businesses in their pursuit of success. There are no guarantees, but if you have the drive, we can work together on achieving big goals that seem unattainable all by ourselves. Let’s get started.
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