It can be difficult to practice self-compassion when we find ourselves in a vicious cycle of negative self-talk. The way we talk to ourselves influences the amount of compassion we have for ourselves and those around us. One way to invite more compassion into your life is to become aware of the negative self-talk that exists within you. Let’s explore three ways you can begin bringing awareness and compassion to your thoughts and feelings.
1. Observe Your Thoughts Bringing awareness to our thoughts in a non-judgmental way invites us to create a difference between our thoughts and us. Observing our thoughts gives us space to notice the sensations that arise in our bodies with these thoughts. We can invite ourselves to bring awareness through practicing mindfulness. Mindfulness allows us to notice the thoughts without judgment instead of allowing the thoughts to become us. With mindfulness, we can bring awareness to the pattern of these thoughts and the source of these thoughts. You can begin observing your thoughts through: Meditation InsightTimer is a great app that provides an abundance of guided meditations that cultivate space to bring awareness to your thoughts. You can download the app here. Journal When we begin to verbally express our thoughts or write our thoughts down, we can find ourselves making new connections and bringing awareness to areas of our thoughts we may have not noticed before. Allow yourself to be messy with journaling, it is okay to have messy handwriting and sentences that may ramble on. This is a great area to practice bringing awareness without judgment! If journaling is hard for you get a guided journal such as a shadow journal from Amazon. It can really help get your wheels turning!
2. Challenging Your Negative Self-Talk
When we bring awareness to our thoughts we can begin to question our self-talk and explore the areas that are holding us back from growth. We can challenge the belief that our negative self-talk has encouraged and begin to create room for more self-compassion. We can begin to challenge our negative self-talk by asking ourselves the following questions:
What does this thought mean to me?
What feeling is coming up in my body when I bring awareness to this thought?
Is this thought based on something?
Is there anything that makes this thought true?
When did I begin believing this thought?
Does this thought serve my growth?
3. Reframe Your Negative Self-Talk After bringing awareness to the thought and challenging it, we can create room to reframe the negative self-talk with compassion. When we provide compassion to ourselves, we are showing ourselves that we are loved and supported. Here are a few examples of reframing your negative self-talk: Instead of saying “I am not good enough,” try saying “I am doing my best and this is enough.” Instead of saying “I am so stupid,” try saying “I am human and I am going to make mistakes.” Instead of saying “I don’t like anything about myself,” try saying “I am being hard on myself. Sometimes it’s hard to find things that I love about myself, but today I am choosing to show myself compassion for just being.”
Show Yourself Compassion When we have been stuck in a vicious cycle of negative self-talk, it can be hard at first to get ourselves out of this cycle. Start small and give yourself compassion. Every moment is a new chance to provide yourself with compassion!
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