Self-talk is your most important conversation of the day. It is your internal dialogue, setting your mood. So be careful of what you allow to influence your thoughts, emotions, and heart.

Self-Reflection … is good

It is often said, “we are our own worse critics.” Self-reflection is good, but we must be honest. Our thoughts, internal dialogue, can be uplifting or damaging. Just as the words adults speak over children influence their outlook, so do the words we contemplate influence our outlook.

When practicing mindfulness, we are instructed not to judge just to accept thoughts as is. However, it is necessary once we find ourselves in a place we should not be or do not want to be, to act! We need to act, not react, not stall out but carefully move to a better place in our relationships, thoughts, and jobs.

Watch Your Tone

It goes without saying, the tone of your internal dialogue is dependent on your personality. Being an optimist vs a pessimist influences how you interpret your world. However, we are able to change the overall tenor of our self-talk with time, patience and care.

4 Categories of Negativity to Watch For

It is necessary to identify our negative thinking, they fall into four main categories.
1) Personalizing, blaming ourselves for things we have no control over.
2) Magnifying, focusing only on the negative aspects.
3) Catastrophizing, expecting the worse will occur.
4) Polarizing allowing for no middle ground.
The health benefits of positive self-talk is greater satisfaction of life, reduce pain, and improved immune function.

Change is Possible

You can not change who you are overnight. But, if you can practice being honest with yourself, you can gradually learn to reframe some of the negative conversations you have with yourself and others. As you reframe your thoughts, meanings, thinking, and behaviors: changes also can occur.

Example of reframing:
Instead of, “I can never do anything right.”
Try, “I didn’t get X right this time, but I was able to Y. I will continue to try for X, maybe in two weeks.”

Scriptures that can help us become more mindful:

Proverbs 4:23 (KJV) Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (KJV) ¹To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

² A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

³ A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

⁴ A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

⁵ A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

⁶ A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

⁷ A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

⁸ A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

1 Peter 5:8 (AMP) Be sober [well balanced and self-disciplined], be alert and cautious at all times. That enemy of yours, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion [fiercely hungry], seeking someone to devour.

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