“I can’t help it, it’s just who I am”
“I’ve always been bad at…”
“I never get it right”
“I’m broken”
The words we use when we think about ourselves are powerful. They turn into beliefs that penetrate deeply into our subconcious mind. Negative self talk is incredibly damaging to our self esteeem and general wellbeing, and most of the time it simply isn’t true.
Often we will overgeneralise, taking bad experiences from the past and giving them greater significance than they deserve. It doesn’t take much for those negative beliefs to be reinforced, andwe might even start predicting the worst before it happens. If we come to accept that these outcomes will always occur, we surrender our ability to make positive changes in our lives.
Let’s look at an example:
Suzy met her first boyfriend at college, and fell deeply in love. After a few months, she discovered that he had cheated on her. Instead of blaming him, she wondered why he felt the need to cheat. What was wrong with her? Feeling vulnerable, she found herself at a party, drank too much and fell into the arms of another guy looking for a bit of fun. The next morning he gives her the cold shoulder, and reinforces the message ‘I’m not good enough’. And on it goes.
The good news is that our past doesn’t have to define our future. Experiences we have had can be left behind. Sometimes building positive affirmations into our day will be enough – positive self talk repeated frequently that reinforces the person we want to be. In Suzy’s case, “I’m not good enough” becomes “I am good enough, and I value myself”.
The problem with affirmations
Sometimes, all the affirmations in the world wont change how you feel, and you end up frustrated and perhaps worse than before. In these instances the subconscious mind has deeply latched on to the negative message and is rejecting the suggestion from the conscious self.
This is where hypnotherapy can help.
Hypnotherapy helps us to communicate with the subconscious mind directly. With the support of a good Hypnotherapist, you will be able to get to the root of the negative belief, and remove that blocker together – leaving you ready to feel positive and move forward to a new future.
If you’d like to understand more on how hypnotherapy can help you, let me know!
Love
Laura
xxx