This weight loss journey compared
to the other has been very challenging. I often gauge my level of success and
motivation from what I see on the scale. If I don’t see the number change on
the scale, I get very discouraged. I
could be seeing changes everywhere else, but if that number on the scale
doesn’t move, all the other wins don’t matter. I don’t know about you, but when
discouragement settles in, so does negative self-talk.
Self-talk is defined as the
dialogue between oneself. Self talk is that inner voice that tells you what it
is you want or need to hear. My inner voice can be very negative. My inner
voice can be the difference between me making a good choice, versus making a
bad choice. Pastor, Steven Furtick, of Elevation Church is preaching a series
on “Moodswingers”. The first topic on the series is called “The Great Emoti Con”,
the message was about having control over your emotions. He brought up
scripture that I felt resonates not only for my life, but also my weight loss
journey. Matthew 15:11 NIV “It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles
the man, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.” He states “you sabotage yourself by what you
speak.” I bout jumped out of my chair when he said that, because that negative self-talk
doesn’t just stay within. When I begin to speak those negative thoughts out my
mouth, I begin to believe those negative thoughts. I begin to believe all the
hard work that I’m putting in is a waste of my time. I believe that I’m never
going to reach my goals. These are the things I begin to tell myself, and then
I turn around and sabotage myself. I start making poor choices when it comes to
my diet, and I begin to skip my workouts. I stop going after my goals because of
the negative self-talk that I begin to speak.
What I have begun to do is start
working on myself, and learning how to change my negative self –talk into
positive self-talk. Going through this change has not been easy, but I still
continue to work at it every day. There are a few things that I began to
incorporate in my life to help me work on changing my negative self-talk. About
a year ago, I enlisted help from a therapist, because I was just fed up with
the negativity and I could not figure out how to change me. My therapist gave
me a task of keeping a thought record. A thought record is a tool that helps
you to recognize and understand negative thinking. A thought record also helps
you to develop healthier thinking and incorporate it into your daily life. When
I completed a thought record for the first time, it really opened my eyes to
how negative I am in every aspect of my life. It also allowed me to come up
with a solution, a more positive way of thinking. If this is an area of your
life that you need to work on, start keep a thought record.
In addition to the thought record, I began to
read self-help books to help me improve on my negative self-talk. One book that
I read that really blessed me was” The Battlefield of the Mind: Winning the
Battle in Your Mind” by Joyce Meyers. All of our thought takes place in the
mind, so our mind is the battlefield. In this journey to a new me, I wrestled
with a lot in my mind. It could be something as simple as making a decision to
eat something that I know that I shouldn’t eat. It’s like the angel and devil
on your shoulder type of thing. The angel is my positive inner voice telling me
“you shouldn’t eat that it’s not going help you get any closer to your goal”.
The devil, my negative inner voice, is telling me “you’re doing all this hard work and you’re not
getting any closer to your goal, go ahead and eat it.” The back and forward
between the angel and the devil turns into a battle in your mind. Joyce Meyers shows us how to win these
battles in our mind. This book will indeed show how to lead a more positive
life by changing the way you think. In your life if you struggle with
negativity, depression, worry, and fear, please get this book. I pray it will bless your life as much as it
has blessed mine.
I never
realized how important positive self-talk is until now. I have to start
encouraging myself whenever I begin to feel like I’m failing. I have to stop
being so judgmental, and understand that this weight loss thing is a journey.
I’m going to have times when I fall, but the key is not to stay down. I pray that God will continue to help me win
the battle against my mind. I pray that I remain positive even when I don’t
feel like it.
If you struggle with negative self-talk what are some ways that help you to develop
positive self-talk?
