With more poor schizophrenics left to roam the streets and more and more self-absorbed people with those "cell phone ear pieces" dangling from their lobes, it seems to me that I am hearing more and more people talking, louder and louder, to thin air! While I'm at it, would someone please tell me what drives people to need to share their obnoxious car music with whole neighborhoods, their intimate phone conversations with everybody in the grocery store and every thought that crosses their minds in a text message? I will pay good money to the first company that comes up with a "portable jamming device" that I can carry around on my belt to protect myself from their total lack of civility!
I am not against one talking to oneself - in private! I must confess that I am always talking to myself, but hopefully I do it in my own mind or behind the closed doors of my home! If not, please, somebody go get me some help!
Self-talk can be both negative and positive. Growing up, I was not aware of what the therapeutic community knows today - how damaging negative comments from others can be to self-worth. Children tend to believe negative assessments of themselves from teachers and parents, developing a compromised self-concept when criticized on a regular basis.
It wasn't till I got older that I understood that I had joined them in criticizing myself. I can remembering making the decision to stop my own self-defeating self-talk and start replacing it with positive and encouraging self-talk. It has been a long hard road because they say positive-to-negative comments need to be at least five to one for success in overcoming the damage.
Following the advice of Henry Ford who said, "Those who think they can and those who think they can't are both right," I have been able to talk myself into doing things I never thought possible. I woke up every morning to a positive self-talk tape in my own voice for about five years. One of the many things on it that have come true is "I am a published spiritual writer." I now have fifteen books in print.
I still have a long way to go. I still say things to myself like "I am not good at figuring out electronics," but if I stop, take my time and tell myself that "I can," I usually can! Negative self-talk increases my stress and it stops me from searching for solutions.
I have fought negative talk throughout my priesthood - both in myself and others. In almost every assignment I have had, some priest has told me how impossible the situation was going to be! I found that the parishioners in almost every one of those assignments believed it themselves. My job. from the pulpit, was to get them to change the way they thought about themselves and magic happened in every situation.
"Yes, you really can!"
No comments:
Post a Comment