imagesEssential Self-care to Turn your Inner Critic into your Inner Cheerleader :

Why gaining control of your inner dialogue is critical to your success

Self-care doesn’t come automatically because we’re so conditioned to think it’s being selfish, thoughtless, bad. About 80% of our thoughts are old, negative, habitual thoughts that have been playing in our minds for years.

Because it’s been playing in the background for so long, most people don’t even notice it’s there.

Unless you have a particularly supportive inner voice (most of us don’t until we deliberately change it) it’s going to want to keep you in your comfort zone.

That little voice is dictating the level of success you experience.

If part of you just asked, ‘what little voice’, that’s the little voice I’m talking about!

These chronic thoughts were instilled by well-meaning parents, teachers and other adults, and though we automatically accept them as true, they probably aren’t.

The good news is, when you take the time to notice and get to know this little voice and get familiar with your habitual thoughts, you can take steps to change them forever. You can train yourself to think in a specific way, enabling you to attract what you want.

We are always in control of what we think. Though it sometimes seems our thoughts think themselves, you are actually choosing them, even if it’s out of habit. The key is to consciously choose supportive thoughts that take you where you want to go.

There are two sides to every topic – if thinking a thought makes you feel bad, try to turn it around. A very helpful process is to think, “this is what I don’t want, so what do I want” and think of the positive aspects of that topic.

There are specific processes to over-ride negative thoughts and take control. This is where affirmations come in. Affirmations are thoughts you deliberately choose because you want the effects they’ll bring.

They should always be worded in the present tense, as if you’ve already achieved the goal, and should always be phrased in the most positive way possible

For example, when you notice you’re thinking a thought such as, “my business is a failure, I don’t have what it takes,” picture a stop sign in your mind and say STOP – then rephrase with an affirmation or affirmation that serves you.

Choose an affirmation that resonates with you, such as “I am in the process of becoming a highly respected successful business owner”.

By adding the line “in the process” you counter your mind’s argument that you’re lying to yourself.

I recommend you work on one area of your life at a time. Write your affirmation 10x a day, or sing it, incorporate it into your life any way you can.

You might like to record yourself saying your affirmations and listening to while you go for your stress-relieving walk!

I will not share how to notice, challenge and change negative programming forever, and why eliminating negative programming is essential to you’re playing a bigger game

We attract what we think about the most, whether we want it or not, through the Law 0f Attraction. So it is essential to uncover and reverse any negative programming we have running in the background, so we attract what we want instead of what we don’t want.

An afformation is similar to an affirmation, and is used the same way, but they are phrased as questions. They may work for you when affirmations fail. They can work better than affirmations in some cases, because your mind doesn’t tend to negate them. An example of an affirmation is, “how did I become such a successful business owner?”

Every time you make the effort to change habitual thoughts that don’t serve you, you weaken the power of that statement.

You also create new positive neurological pathways that strengthen your new resolve, and make it progressively easier to think positive thoughts that enable you to achieve whatever you set out to do!

Think of your thought pathways like a path in the grass – when you stop walking a certain path, it will grow over, and you will habitually walk the new path of your choosing!

There is an easy short-cut to promoting more health, wealth and happiness in your life: develop an attitude of gratitude to become a vibrational match to all the things you want!

You have far more control over the events of your life than you might imagine. We are vibrational beings, and our thoughts and feelings match up with other thoughts, people and circumstances. By intentionally raising your vibration (improving your mood) on a consistent basis, your entire life will improve.

Some simple techniques you can begin today to see real change in your life include gratitude lists, meditation, and visualization.

To cultivate an attitude of gratitude, start your day with a gratitude list, basically counting your blessings and writing them down! You might also incorporate gratitude into your stress-relieving walk – mentally saying ‘thank you’ with each step you take. And in addition to your 15 minute daily meditation, invest 5 minutes in visualizing your life, and your business, exactly the way you want it to be.

Think of it as daydreaming, with purpose! Make your visualization as real as possible – it’s the blueprint of what you want to create.

Your brain can’t tell the difference between reality, and the reality you’re imagining. For, as Einstein said, “imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.” Put these techniques to work for you, and feel free to comment below and share your results!