Self-Care September Day 7: Practice Positive Self-Talk (aka 10 Things I Love About Me)

In his Psychology Today article, "The Power of Positive Self-Talk," author Gregory L. Jantz, Ph.D. writes, "Each of us has a set of messages that play over and over in our minds. This internal dialogue, or personal commentary, frames our reactions to life and its circumstances.  One of the ways to recognize, promote, and sustain optimism, hope, and joy is to intentionally fill our thoughts with positive self-talk."

Unfortunately, too often that internal dialogue has been conditioned to be the exact opposite. Whether it come from our parents, our teachers, our bosses, our peers, our community, or society in general, we tend to berate, belittle and criticize ourselves more often than we intentionally build ourselves up.

Fortunately, the ability to change that is within our power. Moreover, it is imperative to our self-care commitment that we do so.

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As Jantz also points out, "Positive self-talk is not self-deception.  It is not mentally looking at circumstances with eyes that see only what you want to see.  Rather, positive self-talk is about recognizing the truth, in situations and in yourself."
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Optimism and positive thinking can be extremely effective stress management tools - in fact, one study showed that optimists enjoy a higher quality of life than pessimists do - and adopting a regular self-love practice may even improve your health.

We all - each and every one of us - have numerous qualities that are valuable and wonderful and unique and worthwhile, things that we would be wise to keep in the forefront of our minds. The world needs our contributions. It might take a spot of practice to easily recognize all this, but as with anything, the more we do it, the easier it becomes. 

Let's start today.

Self-Care September Day 7: Practice Positive Self-Talk (aka 10 Things I Love About Me)
In your journal, in your phone, or on a random piece of paper, list out (at least) ten things you love about yourself. If you can keep going, please do!

​I'll go first. ​I love...

1. My sense of humor
2. My ability to stay level-headed and take calm action in an emergency
3. My relentless optimism
4. My penchant for whimsy
5. The curves of my body
6. My ability to sleep practically anywhere
7. My strong fingernails
8. My ever-evolving partnership with the universe/source energy/god
9. My sense of adventure
10. The color of my eyes

You don't have to share your list with anyone but if you want to, I'd be delighted to hear what your favorite things about yourself are!

I love you and I'll see you real soon!

xo,
Coach Alex