How to Stop Negative Self-Talk

What you say when you are talking to yourself matters.

You can be your own worst enemy. Negative, critical messages you say to yourself can rev up your stress, hold you back, and take you down!

The negative chatter can add to depression, increase anxiety, make you fear failing, undermine motivation, and kill your energy. 

What's in This Post

Negative Self-talk Examples

• “You’re stupid.”
• “You can’t do anything right!”
• “You’re ugly.”
• “What a loser.”
• “You’ll never amount to anything.”

Sources of Toxic Self-talk

The messages in your head may be generated from low self-esteem or be repeats of messages voiced by flawed parents, bullies, abusive partners...

All too often, parents or other adults who don’t deal with their own shortcomings put them onto children.

If you were repeatedly put down by a parent or other important adult—that was/is their stuff, not yours.

My Personal Experience with Negative Self-talk

When I was devouring self-help books in my 30’s, one of the books I read was Mind Traps. It’s a huge book but the basic concept is simple: What you say to yourself is important. You don’t have to keep repeating the negative messages.

The book spurred me on to notice what I was saying to myself.

I noticed that I would say “You’re stupid” whenever I was disappointed in something I thought or did.

That message had haunted me for years but letting myself hear it clearly led me to being able to banish it from my inner repertoire.

In bringing the message up from my subconscious to my conscious in such a clear way I knew immediately where the message came from. My mother sent me that message in a myriad of ways including saying “You’re so stupid!”

I also realized “I’m not stupid.” This was mom’s stuff. She had an 8^th grade education, being forced out of school by the era she grew up in and an abusive father. Mom overcompensated for her own ignored inadequate feelings by putting me down.

I developed a system for countering the message.

I came up with a list of evidence that I’m not stupid.

Whenever I heard “You’re stupid” in my head, I would say to myself “Reality check.” Then I would recount the list of evidence that I’m not stupid.

Eventually, I didn’t need to use all the items on my evidence list before I would feel myself snap out of feeling inadequate.

A short time later, I didn’t need the list anymore. Just saying “Reality check” would undo the “You’re stupid” message.

And soon, “You’re stupid” went away.

I had been rid of the “You’re stupid” message for over 20 years when one of my sisters told me she too had been haunted by “You’re stupid.”

I said to her “You too?” to express my surprise. And she replied “With our mother, how could you not.”

3 Steps for How to Stop Negative Self-talk

To get rid of negative self-talk take these steps.

1. Begin to notice it.

Pay attention to what you say to yourself. Rather than push it away, bring it up to full awareness and hear the message clearly. Possibly write it down so you’ve really got it.

2. Counter the message.

The phrase “Reality Check” worked for me as a signal to counter the message. That may work for you too. Whether or not you use that signal, you want to challenge the message and provide yourself with evidence to the contrary. It may be helpful to write out the evidence.

3. Replace negative with positive.

Possibly replace the negative message with its positive counterpart. “You’re stupid” can be replaced with positive self-talk examples like “You’re not stupid” “You’re smart” “You can do this” “Academics aren’t your thing but there’s more to smart than school grades” or something else that empowers you.

Negative Self-talk Exercise

Reflect on whether you have any negative self-talk.

Where did that message come from?

How has the message gotten in your way?

Use the 3 steps listed above to practice riding yourself of the counterproductive message. 

Negative Self-talk Worksheets

My anxiety workbook, Becoming Calm: Silver Lining Reduce Anxiety and Increase Stress Resilience Workbook and Journal, includes a Stop Negative Self-talk worksheet and lots more tips for creating an anxiety reducing mindset. 

Building Skills to Uplevel Life: Silver Lining Emotional Intelligence Workbook also provides negative self-talk worksheets along with many more tips and exercises to take your life to the next level. 

Positive Self-talk

For positive affirmations ideas, take a look at these other blog posts:

10 Calming Affirmations to Reduce Anxiety Naturally

10 Daily Positive Self-Confidence Affirmations

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