I spend quite a bit of time in front of the mirror talking to myself these days. In addition, I’ve been spending more time than usual journaling my feelings. There’s a lot going on in my life right now and it is how I process. Upon reading some of my entries it has become abundantly clear that I’ve reached a crossroad.
Self-talk is an internal dialog that can be positive or negative. Positive self-talk looks like, “I’m enough, I’m beautiful, I will lose those extra pounds.” Conversely, negative self-talk is the opposite, “I’ll never be enough, I’m so ugly, I’m fat”. You get the picture. No! I’m not projecting. Anyway. Let me stay focused.
Along the way in my journaling, I realized that I’d written some pretty negative things and reflecting I remembered at the time I wrote them I felt really bad. While reading my entry, I could actually feel my muscles tightening. My stress levels actually went up. Reading my notes and feeling this way was a powerful realization for me. There have even been studies done that show that negative people tend to be more depressed. I don’t want this for myself or anyone.
Now, when I wrote the positive happy things, I felt really good. Even reading the positive things made me feel better. I felt lighter, alert and even found myself smiling.
The crossroad…after this accidental unscientific experiment with myself, I will be intentionally choosing to be positive. This I know means, that I’ll have to make some changes in my life and soon. Because some of the negative self-talk came as a result of other people in my life. Life is too short! I’ve experienced it first hand, being positive feels amazing!
What choice will you be making?
Teresa
