Next time you are bringing yourself down, I want you to imagine that you are not alone, but that you are talking to a friend, to someone you love. I want you to ask yourself; ‘Would I say the same things that I am saying to myself, to them?’ If the answer is ‘no’, as it should be, I now want you to ask yourself; ‘Well, why do I say such degrading things to myself, then?’
Asking yourself this will help you to recognise a universal fact: that you deserve love and kindness, just as much as everyone else…
Upon realising that bringing yourself down is not a wise move, you can start to take steps to showing yourself the love and kindness that you have always deserved, and you can stop with the self-sabotage.
The sooner you put a stop to your destructive behaviour, the better, because as is the case with most things, the more you hear something, the more you start to believe it. So, no more telling yourself that you are ‘lazy’ for having a day off from exercise, or ‘unhealthy’ for eating something you consider ‘bad.’
I know from experience that when I am bringing myself down, or rather, when my eating disorder is bringing me down, as used in the example above, my mood drops and I feel, what I can only describe as, depressed. In contrast, when I consciously make an effort to receive a positive internal dialogue, such as on the days where I look in the mirror and quite like what I see, I feel good about myself, and about life in general. This is proof that optimistic thoughts breed optimism, therefore we must seek to engage in positive self-talk every single day if we wish to maintain our mental health.
So, next time you go to criticise yourself, whether that be over your looks, diet, exercise, or anything else you can bring yourself down over, I want you to picture yourself as a friend. Don’t say anything to yourself that you wouldn’t say to that friend.
Words hurt, even if those words are internal, and even if those words are coming from your own mouth. I don’t want you to be hurting, I want you to realise the sheer amazingness that you, yes YOU, truly are.
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