Just Go With It

Positive Self-Talk. It isn't easy, is it? It's so engrained in our culture to believe that we're never good enough. Never smart enough. Never thin enough. So it's no wonder we're all so hard on ourselves when we're having an inner dialogue.

This weekend, I went to a Waldenbooks that's closing down to find some good deals. I wanted a book that addressed exactly that: learning to have a positive and encouraging self-talk. So far, I like what I found. I'm reading Just 10 lbs by Brad Lamm. The basis is that if you teach yourself to follow the steps and practices that he writes about, you'll lose ten pounds and then more because it will become a lifestyle change, not a chore, to eat healthy and exercise.

Something he's talked about has intrigued me. He encourages the reader to take a few minutes each day to be alone and relax, sort of in a meditative state to set yourself up for each day. He gives you "affirmations" that Lamm encourages the reader to chant. He also encourages prayer. Lamm quoted a study that showed that those who participated in a faith-based weight loss program that encouraged prayer lost more weight than those in a traditional "secular" program. I like the idea because it's so simple. Tell yourself you're beautiful and eventually, you'll believe it and the confidence that comes with that makes others believe it too.

Have you read the book The Help, or seen the movie? I think of when Abilene tells "her" little girl everyday that she's important and special. Wouldn't it be nice if we each had someone to give us that affirmation everyday? I mean, not to make us conceited, but just a little self-esteem booster. I'm beginning to think that that person needs to be ourselves. If we can tell ourselves everyday that we're someone important to this world, and believe it, how much more likely will we be to have the confidence and the desire to pay it forward? What if we were all someone's Abilene, someone who instills little seeds of happiness in those people we encounter from day to day. How many people could be helped by you telling yourself that you're someone of value?

Leave a comment below if you've been able to reach out to someone in a similar way of what someone else has done for you!