Shift Your Inner Dialogue
Think back over the last few minutes. What kinds of thoughts have crossed your mind or lingered there? Are they uplifting, encouraging, and helpful? Or are they filled with worry, criticism or judgmentalness?
Self-talk, your ongoing, internal dialogue is a powerful tool you can use to advantage. Here’s how:
- Decide to become aware of the content of what you say to you.
- Notice if the tone of your inner commentary is predominantly uplifting or depressing, encouraging or discouraging?
- Whenever the tone turns negative, swing into action and consciously choose another thought that is at least neutral, if not outright positive. For example, someone asks you a question. You think to yourself: “I hate questions like that.” A neutral thought might be, “People have a right to ask questions.” A positive thought could be, “Questions are good! They give me a chance to demonstrate how much I know and how well prepared I am.”
