Watch Your Language When You Talk to Yourself

When something you do doesn’t turn out as planned, how do you talk to yourself? Do you criticize yourself? Do you tell yourself what you should have done? How often do you tell yourself that you’re wonderful, perfect the way you are and worthy of love and respect? If you’re like me, the answer is hardly ever.  Watch your language when you talk to yourself!

Do you have a self-care plan to take care of yourself?

A self-care plan is a plan for taking care of yourself when you’re feeling low. List ways to soothe yourself, ways that are specific to you. For some, staying home with a good book and a hot cup of tea feels lovely. For others, going out for a run may be what’s needed for a boost. The important thing is that you discover what you can do to help make yourself feel better.

How about an emotional self-care routine?

Staying active and eating healthy food helps your immune system. Adopting an emotional self-care routine boosts your confidence and courage. Do this often. That way, when you’re facing a fear such as fear of failure, you've already created some personal power to draw from! I gave this a try. My goal was to sit quietly for 15 minutes, once a week, thinking positive, encouraging thoughts about myself. I thought it would be easy, but I found myself regularly skipping this “task”, despite many electronic reminders. I struggled to make it a priority.

Watch your language when you talk to yourself.

The fact that I called it a “task” tells me that I was using unhelpful language. Calling it a task is like calling it a chore. No wonder I had little interest in making it a habit! It would be better if I called it my “new self-care act”. As Andy Puddicombe writes, noticing how we speak to ourselves is the first step to changing negative thought patterns. When you’re facing your fears, how do you speak to yourself? Instead of thinking “there’s that scary action I’m dreading”, try “here’s that important first step that I know I am capable of” and feel the difference. Will you talk to yourself kindly today?