What We Say About Ourselves

It is nearly an epidemic scourge of our culture to put ourselves down and say negative things about ourselves - that's how often you hear people doing this. There is, quite possibly, nothing more detrimental than this incredibly negative projecting about ourselves. Things happen - we make mistakes, we learn, we make more mistakes, we learn some more. Is there a reason we have to trash ourselves in the process?

Really, I don't know of anything more detrimental. We can think that other people trashing us is worse, but frankly, if you are in a good situation with your self-esteem, other people don't trash you, and if they try, you can get off with "sticks and stones may break my bones..." Have your own negative self-speak, and those other people will flock to you like moths to the light, sucking into that negative energy and feeding it with their own.

There is a pathway out. You have to stop putting yourself down. Is that easy? Probably not. Crucial? Absolutely! Here is something you can do...

Everyday, write down 20 really cool things about yourself. Try not to repeat, when it gets tougher this particular exercise begins working in deeper levels of the subconscious and forces you to pull up all the negativity stored there, in order to figure out where the good is.

The more adept you get at writing down the good things, the less power the negaative things will have. You may find that you still say the negative things, but if you keep up this exercise for 120 days, you will find that your words will begin to falter when you are about to say something negative about yourself. Your conscious mind will fight with the subconscious mind, but with continued practice, your conscious mind will win and your subconscious mind will be re-trained; you will, eventually, stop thinking anything negative about yourself.

Life is too short to waste it putting yourself down. Just stop doing it. Pretend for a day that you aren't bad, aren't stupid, aren't fat, aren't ugly, aren't...whatever you say about yourself. Pretend for one day that you are goodness personified, light, love, intelligent, beautiful - get creative with adjectives and adverbs to describe just how great you are and celebrate.

Blessings.
- Darshan

© 2009 Darshan F Jessop