What is self-talk?

Self-talk refers to the ongoing dialogue that occurs within our minds and influences how we feel and behave.

It influences how you show up for yourself and how you show up for others. It’s a script we use to frame our lives, and it matters in a big way because that inner voice influences the way you perceive yourself. It influences the way we perceive ourselves, our environment, and the people around us. There are many of our thoughts in self-talk that we aren’t even aware of.

What are you thinking and saying about yourself?

What are you thinking and saying about yourself when you look in the mirror every morning? Do you look in the mirror and think, “Ugh, I’m fat”? “I can’t believe I blew off the gym again! I’m such a procrastinator.” Or maybe throughout the day, you’re thinking of how overwhelmed you are.

We’ve been saying negative things for many years without being aware of it. You cannot make changes and shifts in your self-talk without being unaware of it first. 

According to the National Science Foundation, an average person has about 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day. And of those 60,000 thoughts a day, 80% are negative. 95% are repetitive thoughts, meaning we’re saying them over again. Do you know that that’s a potential of over 40,000 negative thoughts? Just imagine for a moment the effect this is having on your confidence and overall ability to feel happy.

Creating a shift in your self-talk

This negative self-talk is self-sabotaging us. What you are attracting into or pushing out of your life is a direct result of your self-talk? 

It could be as simple as one word: should. “I should be doing this. I should have done that.”

The should yourself is killing you. It’s keeping you stuck, sad, and stressed. It might even be causing you anxiety. 

We are going to create a shift in your self-talk. It’s springtime and it’s not just about cleaning out the closet or the basement of the garage. It is about starting with you. We are going to do a self-talk cleanup, and I’m going to help you.

There are three things you’re going to be able to do to help clean up your self-talk:

Number one:

Pay attention and start noticing the thoughts on the words you think and say out loud to yourself and others. Write down any words or phrases that you notice yourself thinking or saying out loud or quietly to yourself that are not positively serving you.

Number two:

You’re going to start practicing and using affirmations. We need to take ownership of our mindset, thoughts, and happiness. That’s why it’s up to you like I explained in my previous episode, ‘If It’s To Be, It’s Up To Me’. It’s a loud world with social media and the 24-hour news. It begins with turning off the noise to start to adopt affirmations. 

Affirmations are simply positive statements that can help you to challenge and overcome self-sabotaging and negative thoughts. When repeated often, you start to believe in them and you can start to make positive shifts and changes in your self-talk. Self-affirmation may also help mitigate the effects of stress. 

Number three:

Use some common word swapping. It’s calming and it will reduce your stress and keep you in a more positive mind space. 

Creating positive affirmations to counteract the negative words and phrases that you’ve been thinking and saying. I want to give you two strategies for combating negative self-talk. In addition to affirmations and word swapping, you can use motivational self-talk to get you out of a funk. You can also use instructional self-talk. 

Motivational self-talk is being your cheerleader. Instructional self-talk is the inner voice that provides directions to you. 

Commit to playing to what best supports you. When you do all of this, you will start creating more awareness and create shifts. I promise you that your mood will elevate, and your level of stress will come down.

Dare of the Week

Your dare this week is keeping it simple with one step at a time.

Keep a journal or notebook with you. Pay attention to yourself. Think about the words you think to yourself and say them out loud. Write them down and notice any repeats. 

After, there is a Double Dare of downloading the self-taught cleanup.

And finally, I’m even going to throw a Triple Dare! Let me know once you complete creating the shift in your self-talk. Drop it in comments or direct messages on social media. 

I am also taking you through how to create affirmations deeper. If you’ll grab my self-talk cleanup challenge resource, where you will get a PDF of everything I’m talking about here.

For the following six days, you will get me in your inbox by doing the PDF challenge. I will take you through six days of our self-talk cleanup challenge to help you get a great start on creating self-talk awareness. I will help you create a shift and change to feel less stressed, happier, calmer, and more at peace.