Identifying, Challenging, and Changing: These are the things we have to do with our self-talk to live more full lives alongside our pain. What is self-talk? It’s a normal thing we humans do all day, every day. Sometimes we are aware of it. Sometimes we aren’t. It’s basically a mix of conscious thoughts and unconscious beliefs. Aware of it or not, we can sabotage or support ourselves. Negative self-talk can result in lots of unnecessary stress, anxiety, depression, self-sabotage, and self-doubt. Contrarily, supportive self-talk encourages confidence, coping, resilience, achievement, and a general sense of well-being.
Ask yourself this question: Is your self-talk helping your recovery or hurting it?
Other questions to ask yourself:
- Think of recent times when you were experiencing negative or unhelpful thoughts.
- What was the situation/circumstance?
- How did you feel?
- How was your pain?
- What did you do?
- Use this step-by-step guide to see if hanging on to the way you think might bring about a different result.
- Considering what you have thought about here, what is one thing you are willing to do to help you better manage your negative thoughts?
Ways to Change your Self-Talk:
- Catch it: Recognize when you are having negative or unhelpful thoughts. Then…
- Control it: STOP! When you find yourself thinking negatively, say STOP to yourself. This helps stop the downward spiral of thoughts that lead to sorrow, guilt, shame, anxiety, self-doubt, hurt and more disability.
- Challenge it: Challenge the thoughts you are saying to yourself using various questions listed below.
- Change it: Change the negative messages you are saying to yourself to be more realistic and or positive in order to bring about more helpful emotions.
- Cherish it: Enjoy the moment and the feels you have created
Challenging Your Thoughts
- Is this thought helpful?
- What is a more healthy thought?
- What would I tell a friend in this situation?
- Is there any other reason this situation could have occurred?
- Is there another way of looking at this situation? What are other points of view?
- What is the worst/best/most likely outcome?
- If the worst did happen how might you cope? Would you live through it?
- Is there anything I can do about this right now? If yes, take those actions or info, then accept and move on.
More on self-talk:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/self-talk
https://positivepsychology.com/positive-self-talk/
https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/self-talk#getting-started
With hope 🌻
Amy
