Negative self talk tempts us to engage with it.
“I’m not good enough.”
“I feel left out.”
“If only I followed that other path.”
“Their life looks way better than mine.”
“This is never going to work out.”
These thoughts poke and prod, and they can ultimately become reality if we let them. People tend to try to deal with these negative ideas in two ways: engage or ignore. However, both of these methods have major downsides.
The challenge with engaging in this negativity is that it tends to spiral deeper, wasting energy and feeding the negative self-talk habit.
The challenge with ignoring it and pushing through is that it sits there unaddressed.
I propose a third way of dealing with these pesky thoughts. It’s the one that life coaching would promote. Get curious.
By this, I don’t mean curious about the problem – that would be more along the lines of engaging with the negative thoughts. I mean get curious about yourself, as a person. Digging that one level deeper yields valuable information that can help you overcome negativity in the future.
When negative self talk creeps up, ask yourself, “What part of me is saying that?”
Breaking the cycle of engaging or ignoring allows curiosity to work its power and heal the negativity.