Self-talk is just like hypnosis. It creates images in our mind that motivates our behaviour. That’s why you should try to keep it in the positive as much as possible.  I don’t expect you to be perfectly positive all the time; we’re all human. Sometimes we get down and we get a bit negative. The key is, of course, to remember at those times to say to yourself, “Wait a minute! What am I doing? Why would I want to hurt and sabotage myself with this negative stuff? Let’s stop doing this”.

Having an awareness of the vocabulary you use, internally and externally, and trying to keep it positive can be quite helpful. For example, imagine I spend the day saying “I have so much work to do, I’ll never be able to finish it all and I’ll be really worn out tonight”. What do you think is going to happen? Imagine instead that I say, “Well, I’m going to be busy today, but I’ll manage it all and I’m really looking forward to seeing my friends tonight”. There’s a big difference in the outcome. 

What we say to ourselves determines when we succeed and when we fail, because it also determines how we think and what we picture in our mind. Those pictures affect our behaviour and can either lead us to what we want, or what we don’t want. It’s like we are programming our mind and behaviour with our thoughts. I’d much rather program myself to be successful, so I think of success and what I want to achieve. I keep my vocabulary positive.

In hypnosis we use positive language to the same effect. We paint images of how good things can be if we were to change our behaviour. Those images developed in hypnosis become our unconscious motivation and changes begin to take place in our conscious state.

Breaking the habit of negative speaking and thinking doesn’t happen overnight. But once we realise what we are doing to ourselves by talking negatively, we’re already taking the first step toward positive thinking. Even when bad things happen to us, we can learn to say to ourselves, “Well, this has been an awful time but life goes on.  There are still lots of good things in my life”.

It’s important to remember that we do have a choice. We have a choice about what happens in our life. We have a choice about the words we use inside and outside as well. We have a choice to be positive.