How often do you find that you put yourself down by speaking negatively about your appearance, performance or ability? Such thoughts could be “I’m not good enough”, “I’m useless”, “I’ll never get the job that I want”, “I’m a bad parent”. This NPR story looks at how using self talk can impact the way we feel about ourselves.
One crucial change highlighted in the article is shifting from using the first person to third person. For example when caught in negative self talk, you might say “[Your name] really messed up” instead of “I really messed up”. Referring to yourself in the third person provides distance from yourself which is crucial in gaining insight. Using your own name allows you to see yourself from an outside point of view which can lead to objectivity and even increase how kind we are to ourselves. Click the article below for more information: