Be Kind to Yourself

Be careful how you talk to yourself.

We know it matters how we talk to others. Sometimes we forget that it’s equally important to treat ourselves with words of kindness and understanding. If you go to your favorite coffeehouse and order your usual, you’d probably do so without abusive or harsh language. After all, you want the barista or server to respond carefully, efficiently and in a friendly way with your order. So consider doing the same thing when talking to yourself:

Avoid these four types of thinking errors/negative self-talk:

• Filtering – You focus on the negative despite evidence that not EVERYTHING is bad.

• Personalizing – Telling yourself it’s all your fault when sometimes, bad stuff just happens (without there being a bad guy/gal).

• Catastrophizing – Telling yourself that the worst will always happen.

• Polarizing – Believing you must be perfect; because it’s not true.