In August  2022 I am starting a series of talks and mindfulness practices for negative self talk. The purpose of this topic is to bring awareness to the way that we talk to ourselves – specifically the negative self talk and the underlying self judgments that we engage in that cloud our perceptions of ourselves and by implication, the rest of the world. Hopefully by the end of this topic not only will you be more aware of your own negative self talk, but you will also be able to identify and release it effectively.

Dearest yogi & yogini,

 
“To cultivate equanimity we practice catching ourselves when we feel attraction or aversion, before it hardens into grasping or negativity.”
-Pema Chodron

Let us first  adequately understand the concept and the problem, after which we will explore five practices from the middle path of self communication. These five practices are helpful when undertaken as stand alone methods or techniques, but when interwoven and used together they form an effective blueprint for moving away from how you talk negatively to yourself towards a path of compassionate communication with yourself.

In meditation a lot of concepts are referred to as “practices“. The choice of this word is threefold. First of all, a practice refers to something that you do rather than just read about or think about. To that affect, many of the things I will share will be exercises and you’ll either need to journal to complete them and look deep within yourself to see if you understand the ideas presented. Until you do the associated work, you’re unlikely to realize the full benefits of the middle path of self communication.

The word “practice“ also conveys the idea that this work won’t be done perfectly, this is very important to remember, because as you will see some of our negative self talk is the result of holding ourselves to impossible standards. You want to be careful that you don’t turn your progress on the path of self communication into a measurement by which you further berate yourself.

Lastly the word “practice” is meant to convey the idea that the process is ongoing. You might never win the battle with negative self talk. It will still occur after you finish working on it with this topic but when you apply the practices that you will find here, it is likely that the number of instances and the effect they have on you and your life will be greatly reduced.

The middle path of self communication is like medicine to treat the negativities and the suffering that as you will soon see is largely self created. One of the benefits of this medication will be how much better you will feel about your body , about yourself and about your relationships. It’ll actually also help improve your communication in your relationships.

NEXT MONTH - Where does this inner dialogue come from?

All Love,