Improving Your Self-Talk for Depression

The way we to yourselves is just as important as how we talk to others, and negative self-talk can greatly impact your mood, stress level, and daily interactions.

The goal is not to eliminate negative thoughts, but to adequately equip ourselves to be able to challenge them when they arise.

So here are a couple of tips you can use to improve self-talk:

1. Compliment yourself. Give credit where credit is due, and compliment yourself and show positive appreciation for the things that you do.
2. Eliminate words that act as barriers. So refrain from using words like can't, shouldn't, or won't, in order to communicate with yourself in a positive way.
3. Work with what you have. Be practical. Growth happens in steps. So instead of saying things like "I'll never be able to dance," or "I'm not a good dancer," or even things like "I don't think "I can get all A's this year," rephrase those into goals. So "I'm gonna learn to two-step," or "I think I can improve a grade in one of my classes."
4. Be a friend to yourself, because it's really important. Be there for yourself. Check in with yourself in order to know how you're feeling so you can improve on those.
5. Avoid absolutes. Give yourself a reality check. Often we're so down on ourselves that we don't see the positives in ourselves. So instead of saying things like "Nobody likes me," or "I'm ugly," use examples of the opposite to show that those aren't true. Instead, think of a negative absolute like "Somebody really enjoyed a joke that I shared them yesterday." Or if you're saying that "I'm ugly," say "I had a really good hair day yesterday." Use those kind of examples to illustrate that what you're saying isn't necessarily the truth.

The key to positive self talk is practice. Do it daily. So whether that's in front of a mirror or writing yourself positive affirmations every day, use whatever tools you need to in order love yourself in a better way.