After tasting my delicious cupcakes, people often tell me they are amazed at how I bake them to taste that delicious. What they don’t realize is that they are equally making powerful suggestions to their own unconscious mind all this time. For example, when you are about to try something for the first time, do you tell yourself, “I bet this is going to taste good” or do you say things to yourself like, “I can’t do this” or “I might as well not even try this” We all need our internal voice to help us navigate our way through the world. It’s useful to be able to say things to ourselves like “I must remember to call Robert”, or “I like this girl”
However, far too often we use the power of our self-talk to limit ourselves by talking ourselves out of doing something before we have even tried it. Most people are continually giving themselves suggestions for bad feelings, inaction, and a lack of confidence, and then wonder why they feel so bad! Imagine you had someone living in your home with you who continually pointed out everything that was wrong with you and your life in a really annoying tone of voice. How long would it take for you to want to kick that person out of your house and out of your life?
Well, your mind is the one place where you have complete dominion. If the voice living in your head isn’t supporting you, it’s time to replace it with one that does. Whether you like It or not, the results you are getting in your life have everything to do with what that voice keeps telling you.
Listen to your internal voice over the course of the day and notice the number of negative suggestions you are giving yourself. You may even want to write them down so that you can get them out of your head and see them for what they are. In fact, for the next week, whenever you catch yourself saying something negative about yourself in your mind, I want you to do this.
Now let me be clear, I’m not suggesting that you go around pretending that you’re perfect, I’m just saying that when you speak to yourself in a more positive manner, you will get more positive results. What you feed gets stronger, and as you stop coitizing yourself and begin feeling better, you will be growing stronger and more naturally confident each day.
Most self-help books preach the gospel of “affirmations”- positive statements about yourself that are meant to be repeated out loud hundreds of times each day in order to program your mind to be more positive. However, saying something out loud has nowhere near the same impact on your feelings and behaviors as hearing the same things inside your mind. If you’re telling yourself wonderful things on the outside while your internal voice, is telling you it’s all bad, your internal voice’s suggestions will win every time.