The (sometimes accidental) power of self talk.

We are continuously communicating back and forward with ourselves during the day, that ‘voice in your head’. Some people hear an actual voice using actual words, some people just get an intense feeling after they do or say something, some people literally ‘see’ the consequences of the thought or actions they’ve just taken…

If your self-talk isn’t helping you, isn’t encouraging you, its time to re train it.

Why?

We all have a subconscious; it should be on your team.

How?

Jack Black of Mindstore, Anthony Robbins and the NLP technologies of Richard Bandler and co all have a lot of really excellent things to say about this, here are a few quick ideas.

1. First things first, you have to become aware of how you’re talking to yourself. So the first day you read this, just listen carefully to some of the things your internal voice says to you, dont worry if they’re correct or not, are they positive, encouraging, helpful? Maybe note down anything that occurs to you on a piece of paper.
2. Now, make a decision, was your internal voice making you feel better, or worse about whatever you were trying to do, was it supportive or critical? (There are times to self-evaluate, and when you do this, be honest, but don’t ‘see it worse than it is’.)
3. Pick something unhelpful you noticed you saying to yourself frequently, what would be a more encouraging phrase you’d rather hear? What would a helpful and encouraging friend say? Someone who knew how to really motivate you?
4. Heres the fun part. Whenever you catch yourself saying that negative phrase, make a silly noise to yourself (called a ‘pattern interrupt’ in NLP) and then say with passion and authority (and a little fun) the positive equivalent.
5. REPEAT!!!!!

Pretty soon, the little silly noise will make you laugh when you say the negative thing (feeling good already) and the new sentence will gradually naturally replace the old as your reaction.

PRETTY COOL!

See also:

Richard Bandler

Jack Black ‘Mindstore’

Tony Robbins

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