Have you ever felt like you weren’t good enough? For many of us, a sense of low self-esteem is a bi-product of abuse. Negative self-talk and comparing ourselves to others can be a form of internal self-mutilation; abusing ourselves by proxy of our abusers. We diminish our lives and our accomplishments, whether big or small. We “should” on ourselves, through hypercritical thought dialogues that can spiral out of control. These voracious voices demand unreachable levels of perceived perfection, and negate our actual accomplishments.
Each moment you are accomplishing something. You deserve to acknowledge and love yourself.
Activity:
- Carry a small notebook with you for a full day and write down all of the things you accomplish that day. Thoroughness is the key to this exercise. Some of your entries might include: brushing your teeth, went to work, taking kids to school, went to school, doing the dishes, prayer, hydration, ate a meal, rested, etc.
Affirmation: I am worthy of my love.
Journal Cue: Write a kind letter to yourself about what you are accomplishing in your life, and how these actions benefit you or others.
© Amanda Lee
Negative self-talk is such a big issue that I don’t see how you can cure it by listing achievements. Whatever achievements you list will be minimized by those negative thoughts. It is only when others point out how wonderful we are that we can have any hope of escaping the trap of negative thinking.
Awesome, thanks.
I have struggled with this sort of thing my whole life. I’ve been working on myself for a long time now and am treating myself a whole lot better/kinder than I used to.
But still slip into the old toxic shaming from time to time. Overthinking and hyper-critically analyzing my actions and interactions, sometimes decades after the actual events.