Self Talk and the Law of Attraction
Do you talk to yourself? It would be quite unusual if you didn't. We are usually talking to ourselves all of the time. Not usually out loud, and not always in complete sentences, but nonetheless we are always thinking, imagining, hoping, worrying and so forth. Much of the time, these states are accompanied by words, as in "I hope ___ doesn't happen," or "I wonder if ___ will happen later." Self talk is something so common we are usually even aware of it.
For something we are barely conscious of, self talk is extremely important and powerful. If you are interested in the Law of Attraction, you may be familiar with the technique of using affirmations, as in, "I am now fulfilled and abundant in all areas of my life." Well, the fact is, people are all affirming most of the time, only in many cases they are using negative affirmations! Every time we say something angry, fearful, resentful, envious, sad or bitter, we are putting out negative affirmations that the universe responds to. The good news is that by paying attention to our self talk, we can change it and also change the circumstances in our life quite quickly.
The key is to start paying attention to what you say to yourself. Your self talk tends to be habitual, so at first you may have to work to be aware of it. It is not, however, unconscious, so you don't need to be hypnotized to access it! When you say words to yourself, you are using the conscious part of your mind, so all it takes to be aware of it is making the effort to pay attention.
When you start paying attention to how you talk to yourself, look for patterns. Be especially aware of words such as "always," "nothing," "everyone," "no one" and "why." These are not necessarily bad, but they usually fall into the category of generalizations, as in, "Why do things like this always happen to me?" Or, "Why don't my children ever listen to me?" If you examine these statements you will see that they are not really true. You may take one experience and generalize it into "always" or "never." It can help to write such statements down and then analyze them. Then write down a more well thought out response, such as, "this kind of thing doesn't always happen to me; in fact it only happens rarely."
You can turn negative self talk, which, again are really negative affirmations and turn them into bona fide, positive affirmations. One powerful way to do this is to make an effort to pay attention to positive experiences and turn them into generalizations. While these may not be, strictly speaking, any truer than the negative ones, you are trying to create more of them in your life, so you can trick your mind into believing it. This can be done with questions as well. Ask, for example, "Why are people so nice to me?" or "How do I always manage to have such good timing?"
You can play with positive self talk and affirmations, but the important thing is to pay attention to what you habitually say to yourself now. If you find many negative statements and questions, do not despair. Just shining the light of awareness on them can do a lot to turn it around. Remember, these are only words. Well, words are actually very powerful, but the fact is we do have conscious control over them, even in our own minds (though it may take some practice to really understand this).
So we always have the ability to turn negative self talk into positive. And positive words are more powerful than negative, because they are more closely aligned with our true nature (or Higher Self). So a healthy dose of positive self talk can dispel a large amount of negative. So start listening to yourself!
