How To Empower Yourself with Positive Self-Talk

The way you speak to yourself mentally and

verbally has a powerful impact on your self-image. Berating



or belittling yourself, minimizing your achievements or doubting

your capabilities will most definitely create a sense of dis

empowerment, limiting your potential in virtually every aspect

of your life.

On the other hand, positive and encouraging

self-talk will contribute to inner strength and self-respect,

which will drastically alter the way you see yourself and your

potential in life.

Self-talk is like a recording that

constantly plays in your mind, and much of the time

you’re unaware of it because it occurs on a subconscious level.

The messages you receive from this recording can include

limiting beliefs that were formed throughout your lifetime, as

well as negative or derogatory input from your present

environment.

The good news is that these recorded messages CAN be

changed! It’s even quite simple to do, but requires commitment,

determination and consistent effort.

Below are a few simple ways you can use positive

self-talk to change your mental recording and empower yourself:

Build yourself up

If you’ve gotten used to tearing yourself down, you

may not even notice how harshly you speak to yourself – but

you’ll find yourself feeling sad, frustrated or guilty without

understanding why.

To turn this around, you simply need to begin making

a conscious choice to build yourself up as often as possible.

Get into the habit of speaking encouragingly and expressing

positive thoughts about yourself. For example, rather than

saying, “Oh, you are such an idiot!” when you make a

mistake, say, “Hey, that’s all right, everyone makes

mistakes! Next time you’ll do better.”

Look at yourself in the mirror daily and find three

positive things to say about yourself. You can compliment your

physical features, personality traits or accomplishments – but

be sure they are genuine compliments because your subconscious

mind will know if you’re “lying.”

Most importantly, make it a daily habit to speak to

yourself like you would a good friend who is in need of support

and encouragement. You’d never say horrible, mean things to

them, so don’t say them to yourself either!

Cheer yourself on

Rather than dreading a difficult task and doubting

your capabilities, become your own best cheerleader! When you’re

getting ready to tackle something challenging, take a few

minutes to scream and shout mentally that “you can do it;

you can do it; you can do it!”

Also, be sure to regularly praise yourself for a job

well done. These don’t have to be big accomplishments – just

something to which you gave your best effort. For example, you

could say to yourself, “I’m really proud of the way I

handled that rude customer. I kept my cool and remained

professional while I handled the problem.” Or, “I’m

so proud of myself for finishing that project before deadline!

Now I’ve got a couple of hours I can devote to myself, and I

definitely deserve some downtime.”

Love, love, love yourself

We often have the perception that self-love will

happen naturally once we change something about ourselves (like

losing weight or achieving a goal) but self-love has to come

first! Begin expressing love for yourself exactly as you are on

a regular basis. Love yourself not for the things you’ve done or

plan to do, but WHO you are. Love your uniqueness, your

personality, your character traits and everything else that

makes you who you are. The more you love yourself, the stronger

and more positive you’ll feel about your life.

You may feel silly following some of these

suggestions at first because they’re likely different from the

way you normally treat yourself. But the more you work with them

and focus on having fun with them, the more effective they’ll be

in erasing those old, negative messages and replacing them with

more positive, empowering messages.