We all have an inner voice, which keeps us motivated towards our goals and helps us in knowing ourselves better.
Though our life inherently is filled with obstacles that are outside our control, there are; still a few things which we can control. Not anyone wants to make things more complicated and inflict pain than life inherently brings.
A few self-analyses are a good thing, it helps to understand our progress and spurs us to be a better person. But there is a huge difference between thinking “I want to make it better” & “I’m nothing more than trash”. Sometimes self-criticism backfires, and it does invisible untold damage and causes stress.
Here in this article, we are sharing what you must need about negative self-talk and its effects and ways to halt negative thoughts and excessive self-talk.
As before moving for the cure, it is necessary to understand the disease, let’s first understand what Negative Self-Talk is?
Negative self-talk can come in any form to develop our fear fantasies. We spend so much time thinking about negativity and telling ourselves negative things such as “I am not good”, I don’t deserve anything better” I am not talented enough, not smart etcetera-etcetera, without even knowing that it affects us in a very powerful way.
Once, Bruce Lee- the world-famous martial artist has said:
“Do not allow negative thoughts to enter your mind for they are the weeds that give you strange confidence.” – Bruce Lee
So do not let your mind habitual of this kind of thoughts. Our mind and body do not know what they should grab, and what should be filtered out.
Too many negative thoughts influence our blood pressure, muscle tension, temperature, breathing, heart rate, even our overall personality and limit our ability to believe in yourself.
What are the Consequences of Negative Self-Talk?
There is nothing to damage us from inside as negative thinking can do. As per a study self-blaming over negative though are linked to an increased risk of mental health problems.
Continuously having this kind of thoughts make you discouraged and diminished motivation as well as increase more prominent feelings of helplessness. People with such kinds of thoughts tend to be more stressed and unmotivated. Other negative self-talk consequences can include:
- Not less than Perfect is accepted – People with negative thoughts start believing in perfection and cannot accept anything lesser than this.
- Limited thinking capability – It is a known fact that the more you believe and think something, the more you become like that.
- Depression – As per some researches, this type of thought leads to depression. The more you think you can’t, the more you lead to an increasing feeling of grief.
- Become weaker – Mentally and Physically: Negative talk not only disturbs you mentally but also the muscles in your body become weaker.
Studies also show that negative people are generally less satisfied with their life.
In contrast, positive thinking and self-talk help you relax and keep you happy, motivated, alert and centered.
So, What Is a Way to Minimize Negative Self-Talk?
For a few of us, switching our negative thoughts with a positive one is easier, where some people have a habit to see the bad in everything. However, nothing is impossible, and daily practice and some proven methods can help you to reduce the negative self-talk.
8 Powerful Methods for Eliminating Negative Self-Talk
Read the below and pick two or three, which seems like the most effective ones.
- Try the Power of Possible Thinking – Though turning everything around into positive is challenging, researchers have found that when you’re dispirited and out and force yourself to say positive things to yourself, you end up feeling worse. Here a technique of possible thinking helps neutral the worst thoughts and feelings and let you understand the situation calmly. However, accepting the current situation is also important. As an example, if you fail in the exam, admit it you didn’t read properly and tell yourself next time you are going to do better. It will help you to clear your goal and keep you motivated.
- Get Your Critic – Be a critic for yourself and know when you need to stop thinking. Whenever you say anything bad about yourself, think that you might not have said the same thing about your best friend or anyone. So, why say to self?
- Catastrophic Predicting – We often do this, didn’t we? Fear thinking about something worse, like the worst situation, and convince yourself of its inevitability. Even if we know that this situation is the worst-case scenario and may never happen or rarely ever happens, we let this dominate our thoughts. However, no one knows what the future holds, so why should worry that hasn’t happened yet, and may never will? Take this kind of thought off and enjoy the current moment of your life and focus on it.
- Breathe – As per a survey, one of the biggest reasons people beat themselves up with guilt is overwhelming. If at any point in time they get failed, they cannot handle the situation and go into depression. However, in any such scenario, you should sit, relax, calm yourself down, and take a deep breath. Though it’s not easy to admit doubts that you are afraid of, putting yourself in negative thoughts is also not going to help right? Instead of this, analyze yourself, acknowledge your mistakes, and try to rectify them positively with a positive attitude.
- Don’t run behind Perfectionism – Trying to be perfect is completely okay. But trying to be perfect every time is a concern. Especially if you are at the beginning stage, you may face major failure and have self-doubt, but all things are completely fine. Have you heard the phrase- no one is perfect? So, embrace them and take flaws and failure as a part of learning and life. Move forward with a good positive, though, and you will feel lighter and happier.
- Say it – Whenever you find yourself surrounded by negativity, say positive words loudly. Do not let your thinking be captured by these useless negative words. You can also speak with your trusted friend about your talks. And often these things lead to a good laugh and divert you at something better by reminding you how unreasonable and unrealistic they sound.
- Be surrounded with good positive people and thoughts – Make yourself surrounded with things that give you energy and motivate you. Also, you can watch motivational videos, successful people’s life stories, how they overcame their fear and succeeded in their life or you can find several good positive books to read. It will help you to raise you up and will improve your mood and your mindset. Your mind and thoughts are yours; do not let them control you; instead, you need to control them.
- Make a positive routine – Although it is going to be difficult as your negative self-talks are going to pull you back, you need to be determined and have to confront them. Take some time for yourself, and do whatever you like to do. It can be anything, such as sketching, exercising, writing, talking with your loved ones, or any other thing. Write down one positive something about yourself daily and read that loudly. It will help you to remind yourself of the progress you’ve made every day.
Stop taking negative self-talk RIGHT NOW!!!
- Start observing, are you too much with negative people?
- Are you starting to doubt yourself?
- Do you always assume yourself as a loser?
- Are you constantly tearing yourself down?
If any answer is YES, then it is wake-up time for you. Relax, remind yourself of happy moments, and take a deep breath. Now it is a time to fill your thoughts with positivity and happiness.
Everything will seem easier when you take a positive step forward. So be ready to NAG, and WIN.
Author Bio
Rose Bradford is a motivational speaker and a career coach from the United States. She also writes daily blogs for Edumagnate (a leading paper help providing company in the USA).