Attitudes | Communication | Discipline | Self | Self-Image | Self-Talk | Speech | Understanding

SNAPPING UP OUR SELF-TALK
Psychiatrist Paul Meier identifies the emotional pain caused by the way we speak to ourselves: “As a psychiatrist, I really believe that over half the emotional pain we humans suffer in life is totally unnecessary. And a lot of this unnecessary pain is caused by our self-talk–the messages we send ourselves in our own thought processes at something like 1,500 words per minute.” He offers practical advice as to how we can stop talking to ourselves with these self-destructive messages. He suggests that we place a rubber band around our wrists, and every time we say or think something negative about ourselves, we snap the rubber bands. He writes, “Over the past fifteen years or so, I have asked literally thousands of patients, seminar attenders, and seminary students to try this experiment. Most people are absolutely shocked when they realize how harshly they talk to themselves. They had no idea how painfully inferior they were making themselves feel until they…