Voices in Your Head

We are our own worst enemies. Listen to how you talk to yourself. Better yet, listen to how you talk about yourself. Someone gives you a compliment and your mind instantly becomes the fickle friend or charming family member who quickly says, “you weren’t that great.”

How do we become conditioned to negate the gifts the world drops all around us regularly? For most of us it starts with family or school or “friends” who feel a need to keep us in check. We live in a society that believes positive reinforcement will spoil us or give us an inflated sense of self. The wonderful thing about this world is that there are plenty of checks and balances in place to keep us in acceptable parameters, so why do we believe we must become our own compliment police?

Steps toward change can be miniscule. We do not have to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Start by simply becoming aware of the thoughts going through your mind throughout the day.  It can be as simple as “well that was stupid” when we make a mistake. “Who’d believe you?” is another good one.  It can be your weight, your hair, the color of your eyes or your choice at a meal.  Just listen to the judge in your head. Try it for an hour or even fifteen minutes at the beginning. It only matters that you are bringing it to your conscious awareness.

You could simply try looking for the positive when you perceive that everything is negative.  It just requires a subtle shift in the conversation, so that you can stop telling yourself stories that break your heart.

Listen to yourself and rewrite the narrative.