When you slip into a mental funk, staying on task, taking calculated risks, and engaging your creative side can be difficult. That’s why for businesses and the people in them, positive self-talk becomes critical.
Positive self-talk can be an effective strategy for helping your team reduce stress, stay healthy, and improve job satisfaction. It can also help you extend the same forgiveness and compassion to yourself as you do to your coworkers.
In conjunction with a suite of benefits for businesses, on an individual level, research suggests positive self-talk can even lower rates of depression and improve coping skills. If you’re interested in learning more about how it can help you and your organization, this blog post is for you. Mindfulness Strategies, a leader in organizational mindfulness consulting, defines self-talk, highlights how to use it, and lays out its benefits.
What Is Self Talk and How Does It Work?
Self-talk is the internal monolog or "inner voice" of a person. This solitary speech can consist of negative or positive thoughts.
Negative self-talk involves destructive, distressing, and unproductive internal monologuing. People who are prone to negative self-talk tend to take issues personally, catastrophize, and magnify problems.
Conversely, positive self-talk involves constructive, comforting, and productive internal monologuing. People who stay aware of and stay present with their thoughts see various benefits such as increased confidence, improved problem-solving skills, and greater work/life satisfaction.
Self-talk not only impacts how you see yourselves, but it also affects how you see the world.
Jill Suttie, a writer for The Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley, states that we are more likely to engage in negative self-talk because we “have a propensity to give more weight in our minds to things that go wrong than to things that go right.”
Psychologists refer to our cynical negative inclinations as negativity bias. Evolutionarily, we’re hardwired to see negative experiences as more significant than positive ones. Neuropsychologists suggest this bias once helped keep our ancestors alive by making them more cautious of environmental dangers.
In fact, studies show that electrical neural activity in the brain’s cerebral cortex is greater when confronted with negative stimuli than positive stimuli. This research demonstrates how our attitudes are influenced more by bad news than good news. It’s for this reason that it’s so essential to learn how to reframe situations and leverage positive self-talk.
Positive self-talk shouldn't be confused with blind optimism or narcissism. It's more about internal compassion, motivation, and understanding.
How To Start With Self-Talk
The first step in leveraging self-talk is to recognize and address negative thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. If you're encouraging your team to use this strategy, give them a few pointers on different types of cognitive distortions to look out for. According to Harvard’s Stress and Development Lab, there are ten negative automatic thought patterns that you can use to recognize and address our negative thoughts:
All-or-Nothing Thinking
Overgeneralization
Mental Filter
Disqualifying the Positive
Jumping to Conclusions
Magnification (Catastrophizing) or Minimization
Emotional Reasoning
Should Statements
Labeling and Mislabeling
Personalization
By first addressing any negative automatic thought patterns you or your employees have, you can then begin the process of changing thoughts for the better.
Ways to Make Self-Talk Work for You
It's helpful to have a few strategies at your disposal when engaging in self-talk. To make the most of it, consider:
Treating yourself like you would a friend: treat yourself with care and respect
Making self-care a priority: take time for yourself to engage in activities that benefit your health and well-being
Practicing gratitude: make a note of what you’re grateful for
Changing your vocabulary: limit negative words (e.g., turning “I can’t” into “I can”)
Limiting exposure to negativity: surround yourself with positive influences
Working with a professional: invest in mindfulness consulting for businesses
The Conflict Center, a nonprofit organization that teaches communication and conflict management skills to prevent violence, explains that “positive self-talk is not about tricking yourself into viewing everything as wonderful ... positive self-talk helps you to see the whole truth, not just the negative aspects of any given situation.”
In short, you’re not lying to yourself about your current circumstances to achieve a positive outlook. Instead, you’re looking at every aspect of the entire picture to see that your situation may not be as bad as it seems in the moment.
Examples of Positive Self Talk
Positive self-talk can be a way of looking at your situation from an objective perspective, much like cognitive reframing, which is the process of acknowledging and changing negative thoughts. While negative self-talk may make you feel inadequate and pessimistic, positive self-talk seeks to improve your self-confidence and optimism.
To give you an idea of how negative and positive self-talk sound, consider the following:
Negative Self-Talk
The project’s deadline is impossible. I’m never going to get it finished in time.
Nothing is going to get better.
I’m such an idiot for making those mistakes on the spreadsheet. I should have caught them earlier.
I may have the qualifications, but I’m too introverted to get the job.
Positive Self-Talk
This assignment has a tight deadline, but I have the talent and ability to get it done.
My current situation is challenging, but it’s only temporary.
I did not look at the spreadsheet as carefully as I should have, but I have the capacity to correct my mistakes.
I’ll learn from this experience and do better on the next project.
I may be quiet, but I am confident in my work ethic and skillset.
Benefits of Self-Talk
The perks of engaging in positive self-talk are extensive. The Mayo Clinic concluded that the practice can result in a myriad of health benefits, such as:
Increased life span
Lower rates of depression
Lower levels of distress
Greater resistance to the common cold
Better psychological and physical well-being
Better cardiovascular health and reduced risk of death from cardiovascular disease
Better coping skills during hardships and times of stress
From an organizational standpoint, healthy, happy employees are more productive and positively contribute to your workplace culture.
Precautions
You may have heard others tell you to “look on the bright side” or “stop taking everything so personally.” But making changes to your inner dialogue can seem daunting. That’s why it’s crucial to look at positive-self talk as a process and practice, not as a quick fix.
Positive thoughts, feelings, and actions may come easy to some. However, blind optimism can be harmful when it disregards much of the whole picture and people’s emotions—including your own. So, when it comes to positive self-talk, create an environment in which your employees are able to:
Feel their emotions, not repress them
Rely on progress, not perfection
Reach out if there is an issue
Take time for themselves
Self-Talking Your Way to Productivity
If your employees have become restless, burned out, or dissatisfied, it may be time to begin practicing positive self-talk. If you're not sure where to start, Mindfulness Strategies is here to help.
Whether your company is interested in meditation training, retreats, or mindfulness consulting, our team will help you create an environment where everyone can excel. Reach out to Mindfulness Strategies today for more information.