GO Month: Mental Clutter - Y

Let's celebrate Get Organized (GO) Month by ridding ourselves of mental clutter from A to Z!

To celebrate Get Organized (GO) Month I'm doing a series of posts on the mental clutter that can be just as pervasive as physical clutter. For each letter, I'll talk about a mental stumbling block that often impacts our well-being.

Let's focus on Y ... Yakety-Yak

So what do I mean by yakety-yak? It's that negative chatter that happens in your head that we all experience from time to time. It basically boils down to any negative self-narrative that limits our ability to reach our true potential. You know the type of crappy statements you tell yourself: It's too complicated. There's no way it'll work. I'm just not good at this. No one ever helps me. This day is going to suck.

Negative self-talk can be pretty bad on many levels. It can lead to stress, decreased motivation, feelings of helplessness, and depression. Studies have shown that negative people actually have weaker muscles and can experience digestive and gastrointestinal problems. Yuck, right? And the more you tell yourself you're not good at something or that you can't do it, the more you begin to believe it.

Ways to combat the negative yakety-yak include:

• Quit justifying this thinking by saying you're being realistic because you're really just mentally sabotaging yourself

• Give your inner critic a nickname and talk back to it because then it becomes less threatening

• Treat yourself like a dear friend - if you wouldn't utter these statements to a bestie, don't speak them to yourself

• Take the long view - ask yourself if this would be bothersome in 30 days or even 30 minutes and if the answer is no, then clamp that negativity shut

• Create positive scripts to combat the negative ones - You're capable, You got this, You're a badass!

“Don’t be a VICTIM of negative self-talk –

remember YOU are listening.”

Bob Proctor

Here's to freeing ourselves from the mental clutter of negative yakety-yak!

Please share with someone who needs a clearer mindset.

featured image by Free-Photos from Pixabay