The purpose of the first two lessons was to bring to your conscious attention your thoughts and beliefs about yourself.
Many of these thoughts may be uncomfortably familiar to you. Perhaps you discovered something new, or for the first time articulated how you think and the language you use to talk to yourself.
This is incredibly important.
Understand that your mind will always try to protect you. This may seem counterintuitive when you’re in pain. However, ‘ritual coping strategies’ and ‘avoidance’ are two ways in which it tries to achieve this.
Therefore, by being bold enough to tune in to your negative self-talk: you’ve already taken a massive step.
Well done.
Today you are going to become more tuned-in to your negative thoughts and self-talk. You will consciously acknowledge them and then accept that this is merely where you currently are and what you think right now.
In the first two lessons the tasks could be completed and put aside. Today, by contrast, is going to involve a more concerted effort over, let’s say, a day. Because it’s really important to build a habit of being mindful of your thoughts and present when your negative self-talk in particular, manifests.
This takes practice, but the great news is that you’ll get the hang of it really quickly with a little effort.
Please understand that it’s a very natural process to have concerns and doubts about things. We all go through phases when we worry that we’re up to a task or a role. No-one can be confident every minute of the day.
However, it’s when negative self-belief and self-talk gets out of proportion, out of hand, and never gets challenged, that damage is caused.
It’s all about balance and being able to self-reflect with kindness towards yourself.
Yes, lesson 3 can be a challenge. It’s also a wonderful step in which you stand to learn a lot.
So download the document and get to work.