A moment of gratitude.
Positive self-talk.
I was doing a workout on YouTube and I noticed that there was a lot of positive talk from the instructor to make people who were following along with the exercise at home feel good about themselves.
And this got me thinking about positive self-talk.
The way we talk to ourselves has a significant impact on how we feel and how we see the world,
Events and things that happen to us.
As humans we naturally have a negativity bias which means we focus more on bad news,
For example being left out of a social occasion,
Getting a lower grade than expected or not getting a promotion or interview for a job you really want.
Events like this hit us hard and we focus in on them and start piling on the negative self-talk.
We tell ourselves we're not good enough,
We're not smart enough or popular enough.
What this does is negates any circumstances around that one fact or that one version of the event.
Researchers have found that we need to have a ratio of 5 to 1 positive acts to counterbalance the negativity bias.
And this is where positive self-talk can help.
Gratitude is a great way of thinking about something positive and helping to counter the negativity we naturally fall back on.
So for today's moment of gratitude I invite you to think about something positive and this will allow us to focus on the positive messages we are sending to our brains.
For example I sent a gift to a friend during lockdown and she sent a message saying you really are one of life's blessings,
What a beautiful thing to write.
So here I am lucky because I have gratitude for my friend and for the lovely comment.
It's not always easy to find something positive to say to ourselves especially when the black cloud of negativity is right overhead.
But if you're listening to this podcast you're already taking steps to look after yourself.
To start a gratitude practice is to start making improvements to your life and these are things to celebrate.
So just by doing this,
Taking this simple action,
You are doing something positive.
And it is these simple little actions that we need to highlight with positive self-talk throughout our day.
A ratio of 5 to 1 to counterbalance that negativity bias.
Today focus on all the little things that you do well.
Maybe you ate a healthy meal or took a walk.
Maybe you read something positive or said something kind.
Today have gratitude for those little things and how they encourage a positive self-talk which in turn can improve how we feel about ourselves,
Reduce our stress and improve our feeling of wellbeing.
Until next time,
Always have gratitude.
