Why Negative Self-Talk is Sabotaging Your Life and How to Use Positive Affirmations to Change It.

Words are so powerful-and not just the spoken words. What we tell ourselves each day becomes our ultimate life beliefs. And it’s no secret that our beliefs and thoughts ultimately shape the reality we live in! So let’s review how negative self-talk affects us and how we can change it with positive affirmations!

Negative self-talk from our inner voice.

We all have an inner critic. That little voice inside your head that promotes thoughts, emotions and attitude. Whether that voice is primarily negative or positive is completely up to you. We are 100% in control of our emotions if we take the time to be aware of what’s causing them and how we are reacting.

The brain has up to 3,000 thoughts per hour, will they be primarily positive or negative?

Everyday our minds tolerate about 60000 thoughts. Sometimes, the thoughts can be beneficial to us; other times, they can be toxic. The majority of these thoughts are unconscious, leaving us feel helpless sometimes to our own brains. Yet, there are ways to strongly influence them to be more positive for the life you want to live (hopefully that means a happy thriving one).

What is negative self-talk?

Negative self-talk happens to all of us. Whether it’s been ingrained in us from childhood, our culture, or our education, most of us have gathered different forms of negativity that bombard us, especially when life gets tough. It is that inner critical voice you experience that makes you doubt your ability to make positive changes in your life, that tells you your not “good enough” or makes you very anxious or reactive to your surrounding environment. Basically, these negative thought patterns are limiting and affecting your ability to believe in yourself and positively influence what is going on around you.

Some example of negative self-talk includes:

1. I can’t do it.

2. I’m not worth it.

3. People won’t like me.

4. I must to be perfect.

5. I’m not enough.

6. I’m wasting my time.

7. No one likes me.

8. Nothing every works out for me. Everything always goes wrong.

9. I am stuck in this life.

10. I have no choice. I feel stuck.

Negative self-talk can cause a vast array of problems that can sabotage your life. Some of them are stress, chronic disease, mental disorders and even physical problems.

What that negativity is doing to your quality of life.

1. Stress

Experience enough criticism from yourself, parents, teachers, friends, your community or your culture and you’re bound to feel anxiety and stress. These feelings of failure and stress ultimately affect our cortisol levels- the stress hormone.

While cortisol is supposed to be elevated at specific times of the day (for example, in the morning and with a workout), chronic elevation leads to a whole array of health issues. Elevated cortisol causes inflammation of the body leading to issues like weight gain, poor mental health and a whole plethora of chronic disease.

2. Poor Sleep Quality

Elevated cortisol also directly affects our circadian rhythm, making it nearly impossible to get high quality rejuvenating sleep. This can lead to chronic sleep deprivation and poor quality of life. If you’re life and sleep cycle are out of balance you will find it hard to “turn off” your brain and thoughts when it’s time for bed.

Getting enough rest and sleep calms the mind. It allows the body time to recover from each days and provides protection and prevention for disease. You can see that lack of sleep and negative thoughts can easily end up in a dysfunctional loop that feed off each other.

3. Low Self-esteem

Low self-esteem is another effect of negative self-talk. What you to say to yourself on a daily basis plays a vital role in influencing your self-esteem. It can lead to feelings of helplessness and lack of motivation.

Focusing more on negative aspects of your life may prompt constant thoughts that keep on replaying in your mind for a long time. When the thoughts are often, they affect you and the way you feel about yourself, as well as others. This can also cause other problems, such as high emotional reactivity that leads to both mental and physical violence. Unfortunately, you’re loved ones are usually that feel the brunt of this reactivity is it isn’t properly managed.

4. Body Pains

The emotional and bodily stress caused by negative self-talk can lead pain related issues such as frequent headaches, back aches, neck pains and general tight muscles. The more we experience negative thoughts, the more we stress our system, which leads to an inability to relax, poor blood flow and healing capabilities and hormone imbalances.

When you realize that negative thoughts can literally cause you pain, you start to understand just how important mental health is to your overall health!

5. Problems with Weight Management.

Negative self-talk may lead to gluttony as a way to calm yourself.  Moreover, the physical stress caused by negative thoughts can create a metabolic state that makes it challenging to lose weight. Lastly, with negative thoughts circulating, you may experience the feeling that you simply don’t care about how you feel, look or your general health.

How to promote positivity instead.

• Start your day with positive affirmations.
• Start a daily gratitude journal.
• Meditate- even if its just for a few minutes it can make a big difference.
• Savor the good moments.
• Be present with a mindfulness practice (meditation, yoga, journaling, socializing, time in nature, etc.)
• Turn negative self-talk to positive self-talk through the power of awareness.
• Change your perspective. Think of “failures” as lessons that will eventually enrich your life.
• Surround yourself with positivity. Socialize with positive friends (minimize or eliminate time with negative ones) and avoid negative media (television, radio, internet, etc).
• Spend time in nature while doing any of the above options, especially if you can get some sunshine and feet on the earth!

The Power of Positive Affirmations

The negative thoughts that may be filling your head are there from days, months, or even years or reinforcement. With diligent attention to your thoughts, you can start reinforcing more positive thought patterns into your brain. We are creatures of habit, so if you take to the time to write, think and even out loud, positive thoughts, you will slowly start noticing a difference in your thought process.

This is why positive affirmations can literally change your brain waves and improve your quality of life.

Take care of your mental health with daily positive affirmations.

We all experience negative self-talk sometimes. However, it should be an exception rather than your constant reality. You most definitely shouldn’t be spending most of your time feeling bad. Stop giving negativity power of your life.

Get out a pen and paper right now.

Starting today, write down some positive beliefs you have about yourself and your life. Then make a point to review them everyday! The more you study them the more your body and brain will start to understand that positivity is the direction your life is going!

Stay tuned for a full guide to positive affirmations coming next month! If you have any questions or comments, as always I’d love to hear them!