Welcome back to Daily Dogmas!

What is self-talk?

In my own words, self-talk is what you say to, about, and with yourself as part of your inner monologue. Self-talk can be positive or negative, and can come across as your thoughts about yourself, words that encourage you to do or not to do something, or words of love or hatred of oneself, to name a few. We all use self-talk every day, such as in evaluating our ability to solve a problem, deciding which tie to wear, choosing whether or not to attend a social event, or even in making little or inconsequential decisions, like what color our next phone case should be.

Why is self-talk important?

Self-talk is important, because if you are anything like me, you talk to yourself more than anyone else. Every word you tell yourself feeds your sense of self and overall mood. The words we tell ourselves can give us the confidence to act or fill us with fear about what lies ahead. Since self-talk can be positive or negative in nature, it is important to identify unwarranted negative self-talk and try to reframe it into positive self-talk.

Furthermore, the nature of your self-talk is important, because you become what you think. If you think you can't do something, you will never try. If you think you're bad at one specific thing, you may never strive to improve. And if you think you are a failure or that you are worthless, you may act that way. If you often have negative self-talk, reframing it into something positive can have a profound impact.

How can you change your own negative self-talk?

The first step to changing negative self-talk is noticing it: if you don't know you're doing it, you can't change it. The second step is to challenge it: you know these things aren't true, so why are you saying them? The third step is to reframe it: take your negative self-talk and put a positive spin on it.

Some ways you can change your own self-talk include:

• Instead of saying, I'm not good at that, say I'm still learning how to do that.
• Instead of saying, I can't do anything right, say Why did this go wrong?
• Instead of saying, Nothing good ever happens to me, say That was unfortunate, and attempt to move forward.

In conclusion

Self-talk influences who you are by what you say to yourself. It is an integral part of your psyche. To change your self-talk, you must notice it, challenge it, and reframe it positively. Even if you don't feel like you engage in lots of negative self-talk, I encourage you to try and identify some that you use and try to change it into something positive.

Thanks for reading!

— Indiana Justin