Be kind to yourself

Jan 18, 2016

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We’ve all heard before that “everyone is their own worse critic.” The more I talk to my friends and work with coaching clients, the more I believe it. We can sometimes go out of our way to be nice to others and not hurt other people’s feelings. Yet, have you noticed how we can just go off and be downright mean to ourselves? We can say all sorts of things like “I look horrible today… I can never do anything right… I don’t have what it takes… I’m going to fail… I always mess up…” The list could go on for a variety of situations.

If you were to change the word “I” in those phrases for the word “you,” would you say those hurtful things to someone you loved? Chances are, you’d try to find a more caring way to give feedback to others.

So, I encourage you to be more aware of your own self-talk and notice what messages you are giving yourself. Are you being kind? Try to shift toward more positive phrases that can motivate and nurture you such as “I am practicing to become better… I am taking small steps toward my goal and might stumble along the way… I am not perfect, but I am doing my best and getting better.”

At the end of the day, we are all trying our best, and the negative self-talk does not push us forward. It only paralyzes us and keeps us under a grey cloud. Our thoughts have a direct impact on our feelings and actions, so if we want to achieve different results, we can start by looking inside. A valuable tool for doing this is the “Thinking Path” which I regularly use with my coaching clients. I am happy to walk you through an enlightening exercise to go more in depth on your own thoughts, feelings and actions which could be hindering you, just click here to contact me.

I’d love to hear from you and your own experience in shifting toward positive self-talk and being more kind to yourself in the comments below. What have you noticed?

Photo credit: By Giulia df on Flickr

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