Self-Compassion Challenge: Day 2
Welcome to Day 2 of the Self-Compassion Challenge. Day 2 challenges you to explore your self-talk. Self-talk is your inner voice, the one that provides a continuous monologue. It influences how we perceive ourselves and ultimately the world around us. When we foster negative self-talk by telling ourselves things like “you are a failure,” and "you can’t do this,” these thoughts can become powerful and ultimately very harmful. Luckily, we can change this and create better self-talk for ourselves. To help, I put together the activity below for you to try at home. Through these steps, we can work on challenging that negative self-talk because girl, you deserve so much more!
Now, remember how we talked about awareness being the first step to change? Well, to make a change in your self-talk, you must first become aware. To gain control over that inner critic, you need to become aware that you have a critic in the first place. The way we think is automatic, created from habit and repetition. We barely notice our thoughts as they happen so frequently throughout the day. However, if you practice noticing yourself becoming self-critical and talking negatively to yourself, you have the opportunity to stand up against these thoughts.
These thoughts are not you. This talk does not define you. However, you are the one who gives them power. Try separating yourself from that voice. Name it something to separate it from your own identity. This will allow yourself to slowly move away from its' influence.
By this step, you have recognized that you have some negative self-talk and have separated it from yourself. Now it is time to talk back and fight back against that voice. When you start to hear your critic, tell it to go away! Tell it that you have better things to do. Tell it that you are not interested and that you know better.
Create a inner voice that is your best friend and ally. This voice should be your cheerleader, the one showing you self-compassion and pointing out all of your "awesomeness." When you replace the critic with the cheerleader you are literally rewiring your brain to change the universe around you. Until you change your thinking, you will always recycle your experiences.
Now it is your turn. Go on and start showing yourself some love through Day 2's activity! And hey, congratulations for getting this far. This stuff is tough and it doesn't happen overnight. But many things in life worth doing....aren't easy. Let's make them changes.
