Negative and Positive Self-Talk and Their Applications in Practical Life

In this article, we will talk about the concept of negative self-talk and how we can use it for our benefit, instead of it being a stumbling block in the way of our self-development. We will also discuss positive self-talk, and its most important strategies, how to maintain it to ensure our continued growth and development.

Can negative self-talk be beneficial?

Negative self-talk may benefit you in some cases. It may have the greatest impact in correcting your life and rebuilding your internal relationship with yourself and your external relationship with the energies and data around you in a way that serves your growth and self-development.

Where does the benefit of negative self-talk lie?

Negative talk may tell you that everything around you is bad, and that the environment does not help you to be yourself and to seek to achieve what your self aspires. This is a legitimate matter that exists in reality, so you cannot obliterate it. We cannot deny it or suppress it because it will return to us with adverse results that affect our energy negatively.

This negative environment leads to terrible psychological pressure on yourself. You are the person who likes to do what you want, but you don’t do that, and if you do it, you will also be under pressure from those around you who are watching you and may mock you. The pressure of action is greater than the pressure of silence, so you may find yourself calming down and giving up at the end of the day.

The rational strategy in positive self-talk

Let us first understand the mechanism in which this pressure occurs because it is the key and the gateway to the solution.The brain is always trying to deceive us, as it is afraid in its depths and cowardly in an exaggerated way because it simply performs its evolutionary duty to the fullest, which is to keep us alive. Therefore, if we are exposed to any danger, no matter how simple it is, it will alert us, make us feel dangerous, and somehow give us the illusion that we are the only ones who do what we do, and we are the only ones who feel rejected and oppressed by those around us.

Here, the role of positive self-talk begins through the use of what we can call the rational or logical strategy, which is based on irrefutable facts or realities. These are the basics and principles that can be relied upon to build a healthy and correct life. Positive talk with a rational strategy includes the following:

1. Convince yourself of the opposite of what the unconscious part of your brain is trying to convince you, and always tell yourself that you are not the only one in this universe who suffers from their negative environment.
2. This rejection that you are experiencing from your surroundings was experienced by most of the thinkers, philosophers, scholars, and writers in various parts of the world. Even the prophets and messengers, may blessings and peace be upon them, were outcasts from their people.
3. There is no successful person who came out of a supportive environment because success, by definition, is changed for the better. To change something, you must be different from it. Otherwise, how can you change something that you actually agree with and similar to in ideas and aspirations?

The strategy of self-inquiry in positive talk with it

Use positive self-talk to mitigate the effects of your negative environment. This is done through the use of the self-inquiry strategy, which does not constitute rebuke, reprimand or blame, but rather a discussion with oneself governed by frank questions that are answered with abstract answers that are free of diplomacy or hypocrisy.

These questions are as follows:

1. Am I occupied by my environment?
2. Am I hacked by friends or family?
3. Do I have clear and strict boundaries that no one can cross?
4. Do I have a clear entity that expresses what is inside it with sincerity?

What solutions can positive self-talk suggest to you?

When the previous questions are over, you may find yourself infiltrated and occupied and you do not have a clear entity or strict borders. But do not despair and do not let frustration penetrate inside you. Every problem has a thousand solutions:

1. In the beginning, change your view of this negative environment, even if it is a temporary change, until it is replaced or changed permanently. See it as a place that teaches you lessons and refines your social and spiritual personality. Nothing teaches you positivity more than negativity itself.
2. Each of us at a stage needs a father, mother, siblings, and a family that embraces and protects us and secures our basic needs. But when we become able to live alone by ourselves, we must do so.
3. If you feel that your home is occupied and infiltrated, you must live outside this warm embrace, and allow your positive talk to lead you to that, not your negative talk.
4. Get out of the house in case you feel that you are unable to draw energy boundaries in it that protect your personal and self-being. In order for this entity to grow up, it needs protection, just as your body needed the protection of the family when you were an infant, and you were unable to secure your basic needs on your own.
5. Learn to be real and apply the ideas that you believe in. Therefore, at the beginning, try to discuss them with yourself within the framework of your positive talk with it. Look at what it suggests to you in terms of modifications or observations because when you have a positive talk with it, it will give you a logical answer.

How can you maintain a positive self-talk?

Your positive talk is a treasure that you must preserve. In fact, as much as it is useful and gains you strength, it is sensitive and fragile when it is in a place that does not suit it, especially when it is in an environment that does not belong to it and to which your positive talk doesn’t belong. Therefore, it helps you to get out of the negative environment. You have to look for a new positive environment for it, by doing the following:

1. Remove the idea that you are the only one in this world who thinks this way. You are not alone, you are just in the wrong place in your energy world.
2. Ask yourself: What do you like? Where do you like to go? What do you like to learn? What is your spiritual hobby that you would like to practice?
3. All these questions cannot be answered honestly without having a positive self-talk. At the same time, these questions are what protect your positive self-talk, so the relationship is mutual.
4. After you answer the aforementioned questions, you will find yourself guided to the places where your spiritual energy flourishes, which are the places where your positive self-talk settles and is assured of its existence so that it can complete the path of development.
5. For example, you like yoga, self-development institutes, or philosophy and psychology lectures. Here it is easy, which is to go to those places, and you will be surprised by the amount of people who look like you, while you thought you were the only one who thinks like this or the only one who suffers what you suffered.
6. It is enough of all these people for one person to lift you up and lift them up, raise you up and raise them up, and you give them and they give you. If you fall, they extend their hand to you and urge you to follow the path. If they fall, you extend your hands to them and urge them to get up, so they make you a hero and make you a leader.
7. These people that you will meet in your positive energy places that you have identified for yourself will increase the positive entrances in your mind. Then, there will be a process of expanding and strengthening your self-talk.
8. These appropriate energy relationships are more like economic relationships based on common interests. The important difference between them is that in your energy relationships you provide service with the intention of consolation and not with the intention of benefiting because in fact, you provide energy and not goods.

Is there another concept of positive self-talk?

The concept of positive self-talk may take other meanings, such as saying to yourself every morning “I am strong, I am happy, I do not feel anxious, I do not feel stress” and other positive affirmations, which may be useful in terms of positive energy and may increase a person's self-confidence.

On the other hand, it may not enter into the heart of the problem because it does not focus on understanding oneself, analyzing the causes, and moving towards a solution. These are the stages through which we have defined the concept of positive self-talk, which is a realistic talk in the first place based on the fact that the first step to improving reality is seeing it as it is, not beautifying it.

In conclusion

There is no doubt that accomplishing the points that we touched upon in this article is a long-term process that cannot be accomplished overnight. It may be a tedious process that is devoid of difficulties, problems, and pitfalls. So, there is no harm in seeking advice from those who are more knowledgeable than you in this field, such as your psychiatrist, psychotherapist, or a specialist in psychology or self-development. This does not hinder the process, but on the contrary, accelerates your arrival to the state of comfort you desire, and then embarks on a journey of change and development.