The Power of Positive Self Talk
Donna: Hey there. Welcome to A Healthy Conversation and into the Krech kitchen where we have healthy conversations.
John: Most of the time.
Donna: Most of the time. Here’s the thing, you have to laugh when life makes you sometimes want to cry. We’re dealing with an extraordinarily stressful situation in our lives right now, as I’m sure you are. Because we all are faced with stressful situations and being faced with something really stressful is not necessarily the time that you would talk about positive self-talk.
John: That’s when you need it the most though.
Donna: That’s when you need it the most exactly. So, it’s perfect timing really and isn’t God’s timing perfect. Remember a couple of weeks ago we talked about getting enough sleep and getting restful sleep with regard to weight loss. That if you don’t get enough sleep or restful sleep you will gain weight, or you will at very minimum find it more difficult to lose weight. Well, we gave you a few tools to use for getting restful sleep and enough sleep. And one of those tools is relaxation, we talked about that last week right, dimming the lights.
John: Turning off the TV.
Donna: Turning off the TV, getting away from the computer, a nice warm Epsom salt bath, a massage.
John: Cool room.
Donna: Yes. So, relaxing the mind and the body is crucial to you producing that serotonin and getting into that restful place.
Today we’re talking about Positive Self-Talk. Now here’s the thing, we were just discussing this, does positive self-talk itself actually help you sleep better? Well, if you go to sleep with affirmations about sleeping, well it probably could, but positive self-talk may not in and of itself produce serotonin or melatonin, or any of those “tonins”. But I do know that negative self-talk causes fear and causes anguish and anxiety, and those things produce cortisol.
And cortisol is what is produced when you’re in that outer flight mode. And that’s this kind of a feeling so you don’t want to produce cortisol. Today we’re going to talk about some of the ways you can increase your positive self-talk. And this isn’t just done right before bed, that’s important to point out.
John: All the time.
Donna: All day long. Now there are a couple of little tricks that you can use, that I use, that we use. One is, it’s going to sound silly, but I promise this works, happy music. Now it’s kind of funny t that right now while we’re doing this video the “Happy” song is very, very popular right now, but there’s all kinds of happy music. Just listen to the lyrics. If the lyrics give you life, not if the lyrics cause you to feel angry or depressed, like your dog drove away in your pickup truck and then the door fell off, that’s not necessarily a happy song. But if you’ve got happy music going into your ear gate all the time you’ll play that over and over in your head. It’s true you’ll find yourself singing it through the day, and that’s positive self-talk. Movies, we like to watch movies that cause us to laugh.
John: Comedies.
Donna: Exactly. Or cause us to see life better in a positive way. So I encourage you when you’re watching movies listen, I’m just going to bluntly say stay away from the negative scary crap. It’s bad.
John: All the supernatural people.
Donna: Yes supernatural stuff not good for you. It’s not positive. You may say it’s entertaining. No, no not life giving, so I don’t know about that entertaining word. But not entertaining to you sleeping while they’re having a joyous life.
John: I found that speaking it also is probably…
Donna: Really? You must know somebody who…
John: Talks about that.
Donna: …talks about that all the time.
John: Well one of the main things I always look at is if I feel bad. If you get up in the morning you feel bad. If I say “I feel bad today, I start feeling bad.”
Donna: Yes that’s really important.
John: So I just don’t say it.
Donna: Or even say claim the opposite. Sometimes people are going through a very stressful time, so people care about reaching out going how are you doing, how are you doing? Okay, I’m concerned about you. Are you doing okay? And my answer is anywhere from I will be doing great, to it’s a great day to be alive.
John: Be alive.
Donna: Right. I work really hard not to claim no this is horrible. I never been through anything like this. This is terrible. And listen we’re not perfect. We’re going to claim those things too. Again this morning we were talking about it that why is it that people don’t claim positive all the time or speak life all the time? We don’t know, we don’t know. Sometimes…
John: Well keep yourself in a positive environment also. I go back to where we’re going through all the cancers and I made the decision I was not going to put a robe on. I always wore sweats because sick people have robes on. So when we stayed away from that the thinking got positive j just by doing that one thing.
Donna: Well you know what I remember too, I brought music into those hospital rooms. Loud praise music.
John: Signs, all kinds of signs.
Donna: I brought posters and signs. I put them all over the walls. Just surround yourself with like and if you’re going through a difficult time get people around you who can help you create solutions. Do not get people around you who are going to commiserate and tell you how bad things are. And I understand that people will do that. Just know that it takes 20 positives to overcome one negative. So, you’ve got to have people around you that help you create those positive solutions.
Now there’s one big one that maybe we’ll close with here, and that’s that every morning I have a morning routine that I go through. I start with my gratitude 10 and for 10 minutes I write out everything I can think of in that 10 minutes that I’m grateful for. I was running out of time, it starts my day right. And then I get into the word. Now you may read another positive life giving book. I read the bible and so does he.
John: I do too.
Donna: Everyday. And I just like to absorb what God has spoken for my life and the promises that he’s declared for me.
John: It grounds you.
Donna: It grounds you.
John: Yes.
Donna: Speak positive. Look into the mirror and say to yourself you are fearfully and wonderfully made. You are favored, you are blessed, and God has incredible things planned for you and you want to be right smack dab in the middle of those plans. I promise you’ll sleep better.
John: Amen.
Donna: We’ll probably sleep better now having shared this Healthy Conversation right.
John: Absolutely. Absolutely.
Donna: It’s kind of funny. Again sometimes you can find blessings in burdens, all you have to do is look for them. Thank you so much.
