Step #6 – Talk to Yourself

Who here talks to themselves? Do you? Don’t lie!

Of course you do, it’s what’s known as “self-talk” and we all do it… constantly.

After reading my last post, hopefully you have been able to get yourself into bed a little earlier. I mean seriously, do you really need to stay up to see that re-run of Seinfeld again, keep checking your Facebook feed into the wee hours, or waste extra time on that project for work that can wait? If you’ve put forth a little effort and hit the sack sooner, it’s entirely possible that you now find yourself sleeping a little better too. Funny how that happens, huh?

As I said last time, most people have a hard time getting enough sleep because they are overly stressed.

So what causes stress? Long answer. I’ll address it in later posts and probably in greater detail than some of you want to hear about, but that’s OK.

There are several kinds of stress: physical, chemical and emotional. Most people relate the term “stress” to emotional stress, so I’ll just start there. Where does emotional stress come from? It comes from worry.

You worry about lots of things; real things, imagined things and totally-out-there things. Most of the time you worry about things that will never happen to begin with or things that have already happened that you can’t do anything about anyway.

Only a tiny fraction of the things you worry about are legitimate, and only a small percentage of those things can you possibly influence.

For all of my control freaks out there: Do you know the few things in this world over which you actually have the ability to control? Your thoughts, your behaviors and your choices.

That’s pretty much it.

So now that you’re making the effort to get more rest, let’s talk about what you should do immediately before and immediately after nighttime sleep, which brings us to…

Step #6 - Always begin and end your day with positive self-talk

What you put in it is up to you...

In a perfect world, you would fill your whole day with positive self-talk, but since we’re doing the “baby-steps” thing, it’s easiest to begin with this step before you go to bed and after you rise.

Without a doubt, the easiest way to eliminate emotional stress is to change the way you talk you yourself. After all, you have complete control over your thoughts. That’s a big deal.

Think I’m going too far “out there” for your taste? It is now widely accepted in the scientific community that thoughts from your mind have the ability to influence the global physiology of your body. As recently as 15 years ago, this topic was controversial at best, laughable at worst. Today, specialties such as psychoneuroimmunology and psychoneurophysiology are generating some of the coolest research available.

Focus your mind on the good things in your life that you’re grateful for. They’re there.

If you’re having trouble thinking of anything, here’s something to ponder:

Do you live in a garbage dump? No? Well, 40 million people in this world do. So there’s one thing you’ve got going for you!

What went really good for you today? What do you expect to go good for you tomorrow? Tell yourself these things!

Engage in self-talk that emphasizes gratitude, optimism and forgiveness. Daily prayer fits perfectly into this category if you’re inclined to do so. I’ll bring up some other ideas down the road, but this is a great place to start.

Try it for just one day and just see. If you don’t feel better, you get your money back.

If you have read this far, I’m grateful for you. Let me know what you think thus far.

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