Negative Self-Talk: 5 Simple Tools to Fight It

Thinking about life. Dolly Sods, WV

Jordan Peterson, love him or hate him, says that we should strive to treat ourselves like someone (or something) that we’re responsible for taking care of. People are better at making sure their loved ones take their pills than they are at taking their own. Getting caught in negative thought loops has the potential to snowball into bad moods and, over time, depression. It literally changes your brain chemistry. Neurosteroids in the brain and hormones throughout the body can become unbalanced. This imbalance can even manifest as physical pain in the rest of the body.

Learning how to manage negative self-talk while things are going well just might save you much of that pain when SHTF ( shit hits the fan). If it doesn’t work like magic, the only side-effects of these “mini hacks” are increased self-awareness and Here are the 5 simple tactics that I use daily to build a defense against the negativity.

Listen to Better Music

I wrote about using music to improve your mood a while back after many years of doing just that. Music has been a part of humanity since humanity became a part of the cosmos but that doesn’t mean we’re using it effectively. Whether you’re singing out loud or to yourself or you’ve fallen victim to having a song stuck in your head, the lyrics of that song are being said over and over again. Listening to music with positive lyrics that reinforce a good feeling in you is on par with you walking down the street and giving yourself a pep talk.

You may have heard of a mantra before. Maybe you’ve tried to talk yourself up to prepare for an interview or exam. Your brain doesn’t know who first wrote the lyrics down that you’re singing, just that it’s being done in a positive light and reinforcing the good feelings that come along with those words. While it may feel better to listen to a sad song when you’re feeling down, it doesn’t do you any good to reinforce that feeling.

Word Choice Matters

I’ve spent a little while now thinking about how certain words affect your thoughts. The same action or event, when phrased differently, becomes a completely different animal. A simple switch of words has the ability to change everything.