Browsed by
Tag: mental programming

Overcome the Self-Talk Paradox

Overcome the Self-Talk Paradox

Many people have trouble using positive self-talk or affirmations, because they feel that they’re lying to themselves. They’re missing the point of what self-talk or affirmations seek to accomplish. This is the paradox concerning self-talk. When you state one idea that you immediately deny, you undermine your statement. By understanding the point of self-talk, and a tip to use it more effectively, you can overcome this contradiction, and be successful at transforming your life. Watch Overcome the Self-Talk Paradox.

Transcript:

Welcome. Some people have a problem with using self-talk, as they believe they’re lying to themselves. Do you know what I mean? For them to be able to accept their statement, they think they need to have already achieved the object, or the goal, of their statement. But they’re missing the point of what self-talk seeks to accomplish. This is a sort of imposter syndrome, and I’d like to share a reason causing it, and one way to handle the challenge.

I’m Linda-Ann Stewart, a focus mentor, writer and hypnotherapist. These videos are dedicated to empower you to focus and align your heart with your vision so you can achieve your goals.

The purpose of self-talk is that it is directive. What that means is that it describes something you aspire to, that you want to be, have or achieve in your life. Self-talk gives your conscious, and subconscious mind, guidance as to what you are choosing for yourself. You haven’t gotten there yet, but this is something you are choosing.

If you’ve already accomplished the object of your statement, or your goal, then your self-talk is simply confirming what you presently have in your life, right? Because self-talk is aspirational, therefore you’re aspiring to something. Self-talk isn’t for something you’ve already achieved.

The way to handle the challenge of thinking that you’re lying to yourself, that reaction, is to realize it’s simply your subconscious mind bringing up old programming. Your subconscious is just trying to help you in an outdated way. Thank it for its concern, and then tell it you want it to support you in this new direction. Then repeat your self-talk declaration, with energy and determination. That will imprint your subconscious more powerfully with the transformation you want. With the direction you want to go.

Think about what that direction is, and create a self-talk statement that you can give to yourself consistently and persistently.

Thank you for watching. If you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up. And if you’d like to be notified when I release more videos on mindset, motivation and empowerment, please like my channel and click on the bell. As always, stay focused.

Please read the accompanying article, 4 Steps to Transforming Your Thoughts through Self-Talk.

Don’t Believe Everything You Tell Yourself

Don’t Believe Everything You Tell Yourself

Many of the things we tell ourselves aren’t accurate or true about us. But we still believe and act on them. They affect our lives. You have the power to change those ideas, but first you have to recognize them. Here are some questions to ask yourself to shift your perspective and create a new life. Watch Don’t Believe Everything You Tell Yourself.

Transcript:

Welcome. Today, I’d like to discuss self-talk and how it affects your life. And what you can do to improve the things you tell yourself so your life changes.

We tend to believe what we tell ourselves, good or bad, don’t we? And then we act on that belief, whether it’s true or not. The majority of what you believe about yourself was likely accepted when you were young and you don’t notice it much anymore. But it has the power to undermine you and affect your actions. Ask any athlete. What they tell themselves about their performance affects it. But how much of what you tell yourself is actually true?

I’m Linda-Ann Stewart, a focus mentor, writer and hypnotherapist. These videos are dedicated to empower you to focus and align your heart with your vision so you can achieve your goals.

In my hypnotherapy practice, I helped people change what they told themselves, and their behaviors began to change as well. When you were a child, were you told you were klutzy, and now you trip over your own feet? What if that was a comment that was made during a single event and you took it to heart?

Too many times, as children, we believe something that was said to us and then we make it a self-fulfilling prophecy. And it affects us for the rest of our lives.

This happens when we’re adults, as well. For instance, also as a hypnotherapist, I worked with many smokers who told themselves they couldn’t quit. Their subconscious accepted that as fact, and no matter what they tried, they never succeeded at quitting smoking. When they came to me, one of the first things we addressed was dismantling that false belief. Only then could they be successful at stopping smoking. What idea have you accepted as an adult that you want to change?

Don’t believe everything you tell yourself, because many times those thoughts and their subsequent beliefs are wrong. They were created a long time ago, and no longer apply. What if you changed the unproductive things you told yourself to something more uplifting and constructive? Your subconscious would begin to accept those statements as true, and adjust your beliefs and actions accordingly. What could that change in your life?

  • What thought or belief can you now assess in a new light, from a new perspective?
  • And how can you change it so that it supports the life you want?

Start today, and focus on one area of your life. Be deliberate in the way you talk to yourself, and watch how your life changes. Thank you for watching. If you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up. And if you’d like to be notified when I release more videos on mindset, motivation and empowerment, please like my channel and click on the bell. As always, stay focused.

Please read the accompanying article, 4 Steps to Transforming Your Thoughts through Self-Talk.

Affirming Self-Love for Greater Self-Esteem and Well Being

Affirming Self-Love for Greater Self-Esteem and Well Being

We all have some negative self-talk that undermines our self-love and well being. If that negative programming isn’t counteracted, it can sabotage your self-esteem, motivation and goals. Fortunately, there are ways to reprogram your mind to support your appreciation of yourself. Learn a simple way to change your self-talk and how to do it most effectively. Watch Affirming Self-Love for Greater Self-Esteem and Well Being.

Transcript:

Welcome. Have you ever noticed the negative things you tell yourself? The demoralizing self-talk that drags you down and keeps you from doing your best? We all have that negative internal dialogue to some extent, and it chips away at your deep appreciation of yourself, which is what self-love is. If negative self-talk isn’t counteracted, it can undermine your motivation, goals and even your health.

One of the ways to counteract negative self-talk is to replace it with positive self-talk, also called affirmations or auto-suggestions. When you substitute positive ideas for the negative ones, it begins a shift within your subconscious mind. You reprogram your subconscious mind to support your love and appreciation of yourself. In this video, you’ll learn some simple positive affirmations you can use, and how to use them to be most effective.  

I’m Linda-Ann Stewart, a focus mentor, writer and hypnotherapist. These videos are dedicated to empower you to focus and align your heart with your vision so you can achieve your goals.

When you repeat statements to yourself, whether they’re positive or negative, you’re mentally programming yourself. You then tend to believe your statements and act on them. You know what I mean, right? If you’re criticizing yourself, you feel like a failure and don’t do your best. But if you’re encouraging yourself, you’re motivated to keep going and do better.

The negative programming can be reversed by consistently, and the key word here is consistently, using positive programming. Five of the positive affirmations or auto-suggestions I’ve used with my clients over the years to help improve their sense of self are the following:

  • I deserve love and to love myself.
  • I recognize my true worth.
  • I am worthy of the best that life has to give.
  • Right here and right now, I am enough.
  • I’m becoming the person I was meant to be.

I’ll put these in the description for you. For more affirmations for self-love, you can do internet searches. There are lots of them out there. The secret to being effective with affirmations is to say them out loud several times a day. It takes repetition to counteract the negative messages you’ve been giving yourself.

You can repeat positive statements about yourself while walking, exercising, in the car, getting ready for work, going to sleep or during meditation. Flood your mind with the positive messages, and you’ll notice an improvement in your self-esteem, motivation, and overall well being.  

What affirmation do you want to inspire yourself with today? Thank you for watching. If you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up. And if you’d like to be notified when I release more videos on mindset, motivation and empowerment, please like my channel and click on the bell. As always, stay focused.

Read the accompanying article, Cultivate Self-Love to Flourish.

Affirmation for Positive Thoughts Results

Affirmation for Positive Thoughts Results

Question about affirmations

Question: If I say affirmation for positive thoughts 10 times in the morning and at night, will I see results within a week?

Answer: If you say affirmations to be more positive 10 times in the morning and evening for a week, you might see an improvement in a week. However, it would also depend if you’re also monitoring your thoughts during the day.

Affirmations or any such reprogramming techniques work when you’re also addressing the issue during the periods that you’re not saying the, for example: the rest of the day. They’re not magical incantations.

Any reprogramming technique needs the conscious mind to support it and work with it. During the day, when you find yourself in a negative frame of mind, find a way to turn it around to think more positively about the situation, and then say the affirmation to yourself. This reinforces and strengthens the intention of the affirmation.

If you say the affirmation 10 times morning and evening, and during the day consciously choose to think about things differently, as well as using your affirmation at those times, you’ll probably begin to see a slight improvement within a week. If you keep doing it, that improvement will be progressive.

And when you find yourself more positive, you should keep monitoring your thoughts and saying your affirmation occasionally during the day to remind yourself to keep moving in the proper direction.

~ Linda-Ann Stewart

Reprogram Your Negative Self-Chatter

Reprogram Your Negative Self-Chatter

by Linda-Ann Stewart

Thoughts in a head

Have you ever monitored what you say to yourself? Listened to the self-talk that chatters away without your being aware of it? Automatic phrases, such as “I can’t do this,” “I’m not worthy,” “I can’t handle this,” “I can’t afford it” and others. You may even find yourself saying them to the people in your life. These are beliefs that have been programmed into you, just like into a computer. Suppose the boss asks you to come into his office. Your first reaction may be “Uh, Oh. I’m in trouble,” even though he may want to praise you.

These ideas come from your past, but  they create a self-fulfilling feedback loop in your subconscious. Without your being aware of it, they provide background noise in your life. Is it any wonder that it’s hard to make any changes? They echo the words of parents, siblings, friends, teachers, anybody whose opinion you ever accepted, whether it was true or not. You were hypnotized into believing them, and you’ve stayed true to the conditioning.

How to Reprogram Negative Thoughts

An affirmation is a statement that confirms what you hold to be true, and though we generally use the term for positive declarations, these statements can be either positive or negative. When you tell yourself over and over that you’re not worthy , it convinces your subconscious that this is what you want, and your subconscious creates this reality.

The first step is to become aware of what you’re telling yourself. Write down these statements. Then formulate a sentence that counters what you’ve been believing all these years. Use it repetitively, because that’s how you were programmed in the first place. By hearing the same or similar things over and over.

Remain conscious of the background noise of your thoughts. And when the negative statement rises up, use your new phrase. Be patient. That original idea has been there a long time. It’ll take time, consistence, and persistence, but eventually you’ll change the thought to one that more truly reflects the Universe’s loving opinion of you.

Affirmation:

I monitor my self-talk and now become aware of what I’m telling myself. I realize that these negative ideas came from the past and have no relation to my present life. I recognize my own worth and the authority of my positive declarations. I am patient, consistent and persistent in reprogramming my mind, for I know that the changes are happening with every constructive affirmation that I state.

As a focus mentor, hypnotherapist, and writer, Linda-Ann Stewart motivates women to focus and transform their business through deliberate actions that break through distraction and overwhelm to greater success, freedom, wellbeing and prosperity. Register for her FREE Design Your Best Day guide and guided meditation video at www.Linda-AnnStewart.com/guide.html. You can contact her at LAS@Linda-AnnStewart.com or 928-600-0452.

Defuse the Power of Negative Thinking

Defuse the Power of Negative Thinking

by Linda-Ann Stewart

"We are what we think about all day long." Ralph Waldo Emerson

“We are what we think about all day long.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

What do you tend to think about all day? Is your awareness focused on beneficial, enriching thoughts or are you mainly thinking discouraging, undermining ideas and telling yourself that “I can’t?” The subconscious follows the tendency of your thoughts, and manifests the average of what you ponder during the day. If the overall quality of your thoughts is positive and uplifting, then the subconscious moves in that direction, and the converse is true.

It’s not easy to think positively every moment of every day. I’m not even sure it’s possible. But the subconscious doesn’t need you to be continuously constructive. It just needs you to be more positive than negative for it to create more harmony. But many people fear their negative thoughts, and that very fear gives those thoughts more energy.

Thought Is Creative

Each thought is potentially creative and is formed of energy. When a person recognizes they’ve considered a negative idea, many times they feel guilty for doing so, and become afraid that it will overcome any positive thoughts. Instead of simply switching their attention to something more beneficial, they continue to spiral downwards, and the negative thought takes on a life of its own. 

For instance, consider a baseball player who has missed every pitch in a game. Instead of figuring he just had a bad game, or the pitcher was especially good, he might begin to doubt his abilities. During practice, and the next game, he’ll tense up and worry too much about hitting the ball. He may recognize the tendency of his thinking, and try to overcome it. But now he’s fighting on two fronts. He’s concerned about not hitting the ball and fearful that his thinking is going to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Once he begins to worry, and not trust his abilities, problems arise.

Your Subconscious Programs

Many times, the limiting, negative thoughts are simply a part of the subconscious trying to protect you and keep you safe. You might hear that little voice in your head saying:

  • If you don’t try, then you won’t fail, right?
  • By expecting the worst, you won’t be disappointed when it happens.
  • If you don’t succeed, then people won’t expect more of you.

This little voice is part of the subconscious mind using fear, doubt, and worry as a way to keep you from growing and moving forward. As long as you’re in familiar territory, then it figures nothing bad will happen.

It’s simply doing its job, repeating what it’s been programmed to do. So instead of vilifying it, resisting the negative thoughts and fearing their power, change your way of responding to them. When you become aware of a negative idea, simply say, “Thank you.” This immediately defuses the power you attach to the negative thought. You’re acknowledging its attempt to help, instead of rebelling against it. State, “Thank you, but that’s no longer helpful,” and respond with a beneficial concept.

How to Deal with Negative Thoughts

A long time ago, I learned a powerful way of dealing with negative thoughts. Divide a paper in half, write your affirmative goal on the left side, and record any objection that comes to mind on the right side, and then reply with “Thank you.” By writing down its concerns, and then acknowledging it with a “Thank you,” you’re letting the subconscious mind know that you recognize its distress. On the next line, write your goal again, and then any negative response, and “Thank you.” Continue until you don’t notice any negative thoughts about it coming into your mind.

Eventually, it will cease to bother you with protests, because you’ve let it know you’ve heard it, but are still going to move in that new direction. You’ve taken back your power. It will respect that, because that’s its true goal. As long as you accept your own authority in directing your life, the critical voice will quiet down. And you can now put your attention on what it is you want in your life, without wasting your energy resisting your negative thoughts.

Affirmation:

Negative thoughts are simply outdated ideas that I accepted sometime in the past. They are no longer valid or necessary to help me. Whenever I recognize myself dwelling on a negative concept, I remember that it’s simply my subconscious mind concerned about me. I respond with “Thank you, but it’s safe for me to experience progress.” I accept that I am the authority in my life and now take back my power.

As a focus mentor, hypnotherapist, and writer, Linda-Ann Stewart motivates women entrepreneurs and small business owners to focus and transform their business through deliberate actions that break through distraction and overwhelm to greater success, wellbeing and prosperity.To achieve your goals with confidence and ease in 4 powerful steps, register for her FREE training video and accompanying action planning guide at www.Linda-AnnStewart.com/setyourcourse.html. You can contact her at LAS@Linda-AnnStewart.com or 928-600-0452.

7 Ways You Sabotage Your Goals

7 Ways You Sabotage Your Goals

by Linda-Ann Stewart

Reach Goal

All you have to do to find out what your priorities have been is to look at your life. It’s a perfect reflection of your thoughts, beliefs, and choices. If you’re an entrepreneur and don’t have enough income, where have you been putting your energy? Has it gone into checking your email all day long or into promoting your business? Being out of shape means that watching TV, surfing the internet, or eating junk food have been more important to you than exercising.

Everything you have in your life is a result of  your past choices. You make decisions each day and then act on them. When you’re hungry, you can reach for a cupcake or have an apple. If you eat a cupcake for a snack every day, you’ll probably gain weight. Munching on the apple means you’ll have  better health. All the choices you make have consequences, either good or bad.

Change Your Choices

If you want something different in your life, you’ll need to start making different choices and following them through with a plan of action. To lose weight, reduce your calorie intake, portion sizes and increase your exercise. For more business, take action to become more visible and let people know about your product or service. 

Decisions are made in different ways, for different reasons, and not always consciously. Unfortunately, sometimes the actions you take sabotage what you really want. Learning to identify how your decisions are made can make the difference between success and failure. Once you become more aware of what prompts your decisions, you can formulate strategies to keep you on track and make decisions that will move you forward.

When Your Choices Sabotage Your Goals

Choices can sabotage you when they’re made:

1. Unconsciously. You could simply be acting out of a habit you created in the past. Although, you have the best of intentions, you fall into old patterns that undermine your goals. What can you do to break that habit and create a new one that supports your vision?

2. Based on past programming. For instance, you accepted ideas from people who told you that you wouldn’t be successful. By continuing to act on this, you’re limiting yourself for no reason. They didn’t know or couldn’t recognize your potential. Reassess them and reprogram your beliefs.

3. To avoid uncomfortable emotions. Change can be threatening. Achieving your goal could bring up outdated beliefs that don’t want to let go. So you choose the path of least resistance to keep from confronting those ideas. You have to decide which is most important to you, continued comfort or facing your fears.

4. Due to procrastination. This is similar to the last one. Once you move forward, you’re going to be in uncharted territory. You could be risking failure, criticism, or more responsibility. Find out why you procrastinate and develop a way of handling it.

5. Because you didn’t make a choice. You decided to put off making a decision. But not making a choice is a choice in itself. You’ve simply chosen not to change or take any action towards your goal. What do you need to do to decide to take action?

6. Trying to change too much all at once. Some people dive in and try to change their entire lives at one time. If you aren’t forced to do this, through divorce or some other trauma, don’t overwhelm yourself. The subconscious doesn’t like to change too much at one time. Take one area and work on it until it’s underway, then start on another.

7. From a sense of overwhelm or stress. Unfortunately, decisions made under duress are rarely for the best. They usually are made in reaction to outside circumstances and not well thought out. Step back, take a deep breath, and assess the situation before you make a choice.

Make Your Choices Work For You

Once you recognize how you make decisions, you can create a plan to keep you on the path to your goal. You simply break the old habit by establishing a new one.

You want to be able to consciously make decisions. The only way to be effective at achieving your goals is to know your target and aim for it. Some people weigh the pros and cons, and some decide what feels right. Whatever way you make choices, be aware of what you want and make a plan. Then stay on track and work your plan. And each day, make sure your choices support your endeavor.

Affirmation:

The Universe is always supporting my endeavors. It wants me to be abundant and successful. I am always Divinely guided. When I have a goal, I create a plan to achieve it. Any resistance to moving forward is now dissolved. It no longer serves a purpose. I commit myself to my goal and work my plan every day.

[suffusion-the-author display=’description’]

Sparks of Insight

Sparks of Insight

Sparks of Insight

Some people vilify the subconscious, comparing it to the devil, because they feel it brings only bad things to them. What they don’t realize is that it’s also allowed all the good experiences that they’ve had. The subconscious only brings into their lives what they’ve programmed it to do by directed thoughts or the average of their ideas. The subconscious can’t initiate anything. It can only do what you tell it to do. So if you have something in your life that you don’t want, it’s because somehow you’ve conditioned your subconscious to create it. The good news is that you can change that thought. The bad news is that it takes determination, consistency and persistence to do so. But it can be done.  

~ Linda-Ann Stewart