Have you ever noticed when you are having a conversation about something totally random: A new diet. A new car. Or even that bike trip through Tuscany you’ve always wanted to take, and suddenly, an ad will pop up with that exact same thing you were just talking about? Is your phone actually listening to you? Creepy for sure. But, it also got me thinking.
Over the past year or so, I have been reading a lot of books by all of the self-help gurus: Louise Hay, Jack Canfield, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Shakti Gawain. They are all New York Times best-selling authors who are all experts in the field of philosophy, healing, and self-love. Each one of them has written extensively on the subject of positive self-talk or affirmations. They say that your words and your thoughts can directly affect your success: Personally and professionally. It is believed that your words and thoughts are heard on a cellular level. Your words become part of you… kind of like how your phone hears everything you say and some algorithm creates an ad targeted just for you.
This was a terrifying discovery for me, since I have spent a good chunk of my life, maybe all of it, with self-deprecating humor as the backbone of my identity. I was raised in a family that taught us that self-deprecating humor was disarming, and that self-promotion was tacky. And while I don’t want to discount humor and humility, I might have taken it too far. I was critical of anything that I didn’t do well. I would readily offer up my weaknesses long before I would discuss my strengths or my accomplishments.
I won’t even mention all of the times that I cursed my curly (frizzy) hair.
But then I started reading about vibrational energy, and the belief that everything is affected by the words we use. The tone of our voices. And here’s the real kicker… our thoughts too! Plants, animals, and human beings are all part of the same source energy. Which means that everything reacts to our words, intentions, and tones…. including ourselves.
So, what does this all mean? Studies show that negative self-talk is damaging. This is our “inner critic” and that bad boy (or girl) needs to be quieted down. Our inner critic plays old tapes that we may have adopted when we were children. Time to burn those tapes and challenge that critic.
It turns out that positive self-talk is the antidote to that pattern of negative self-talk.
The impact of self-talk (negative or positive) is real. We need to be kinder to ourselves. We need to be more patient with ourselves. We need to be more loving to ourselves.
So lose the negative self-talk… and start the positive affirmations!
Why? Because our cell phones are listening… and our cell biology is too.
