Usually we tell ourselves whatever we want. The thing is that our repetitive conversations modify the way we think and behave. We are free to say whatever we want to ourselves, but that shouldn’t give us the permission to do it.
Our self-talk influences our current and future life on several areas:
- similar situations trigger similar conversations that fire up similar neurons, which will create continuously growing neural paths;
- once those neural are strong enough, they will be activated every time those situations are encountered and that will trigger automatic thoughts which will lead to… (yes, you guessed it) similar conversations;
- stronger neural paths are easier to activate and follow; because of this, it will be easier for those neural paths to activate in other situations as well;
- if we repeat something long enough, we’ll start believing it and once we believe it, we’ll act based on that belief;
- our behavior shapes the life we have and if our self-talk goes in a certain way, our life will be shaped accordingly.
I am aware, very aware about how negative self-talk works and about the importance of it. Strong paths are difficult to break, but not impossible. Your inner voice is what brings you up or down and it keeps you there. As Henry Ford says:
“Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right.”
How do your self-talks look like?