For auditory people

Negative self-talk can be incredibly destructive and make us feel bad, scared and anxious. For some the negative self-talk uses their voice, for others the voice is someone who has had a negative influence on their lives in the past. This technique is particularly good for people with an auditory preference.
If we take notice of  negative self-talk we eventually make ourselves feel even worse as we are the ones generating the voice and the content! It seems crazy when you think that you are the one responsible for making yourself feel bad by talking to yourself in this way.

Just ask yourself this question ” if a friend talked to you in the same way that you talk to yourself would you still want to be friends with them?”

Here is a great way of dealing with negative self-talk by identifying it and treating it as an unwanted part of you. All it takes is a little focus and imagination.

 The Self Talk Eliminator Technique.

1. First, we must get the negative self-talk going on in our minds until we notice a bad feeling in our stomachs. It is important that you get the feeling with the self-talk to make the eliminator technique effective.

2. Focus on where the self-talk in your mind is coming from. When you have located it, notice it’s colour and shape. Now focus on this so that it becomes clear in your mind.

3. Put your thumb up at arm’s length and mentally move the coloured shape to your thumb so your thumb is now talking to you. Already by moving the negative self-talk to your thumb you will notice how the bad feeling starts to subside.

4. Now give the voice to a squeaky or silly voice and wiggle your thumb as the self-talk continues. You will very quickly find that you cannot take the self-talk seriously when it’s coming from a wiggling, silly sounding thumb! Most people find themselves laughing or recognise how silly it is talking to yourself in this way, which breaks the unwanted state.

Keep using this technique and eventually the negative self-talk will become insignificant, non emotive and will stop making you feel bad.