3 Tips To Detox Your Self Talk

Our brains are about as cluttered as our homes these days. Why is that? Because we have got information coming at us everywhere on the internet, on the radio, on television, from our friends' conversations. Just information coming in all the time. It's information overload!

Now, to a certain extent, we can control that by turning those things off, but you can still feel the vibe of the people around you or in your community or in the world even. I mean, there's, there's a lot of fear!

There's a lot of anxiety, there's a lot of anger. And other feelings that can be reactive to people. And then the second thing is we also have an internal conversation, right? So it's something I like to call the itty bitty "sh**ycommittee.

It's a little committee in there that's constantly talking to us, constantly telling us, generally speaking, harsh, critical things. So in order to change this, we have to do three things.

• The first thing is we have to do is become aware that we have self talk. And the thing is that a lot of times, it is unconscious, or subconscious. We're not actively thinking those things, but it's kind of like in the background, like somebody is yelling from the back of the auditorium: you're not enough or whatever the sentiment is.

And a lot of this came about when we were little, when we were really small. And it doesn't mean that things were directed at us in particular, although they could have been, but it could be that it was just like, this is what this person said to that person. Or this is what these group of people were talking about.

And that stuff just goes in to a very immature brain that doesn't make a distinction between, yeah, this isn't really for me, or this isn't about me. We can't make those kinds of decisions with a very, very young brain. So it's kind of invisible to us sometimes.

• The second thing is, once we're aware of it, then we have to start actually paying attention to it. So what is that voice telling me? What is it actually saying?

Sometimes writing it down or just even understanding what is being said, can also maybe take you back to when you were a child or when those things started coming into your mind. Maybe you can start to release them and start to heal from them.

Once you are aware that you have self talk and what your self talk is telling you, then you can change it. And how do you do that?

Well, you take it step-by-step. First of all you know this over here and it's negative. So then you want to start shifting it to something more neutral. So this could be, (over here) I'm a really rotten person and this (over here) could be I'm a good person.

• And finally, once you get yourself into neutral, then you can move into positive. I'm a great person. I'm a great human being who makes mistakes, but I'm still good.

You will find a huge change in your life. If you can shift your self talk from something so harsh and so critical to something, loving; to something compassionate, to something nurturing, something that will actually nourish you and support you to live the life you want to live.

So try it and thank you so much for listening.

Dr. Elaine

This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace the medical advice of your doctor or healthcare provider. Please consult your healthcare provider for advice about a specific medical condition.