Positive Self Talk

I disagree with everyone who says you have to believe in positive thinking to reap its benefits. A man named Dr. Shad Helmstetter wrote a book called "What To Say When You Talk To Yourself". If I remember correctly, he outlined the progression as :

Programming (What you've been told again and again about yourself and the world around you) -> Beliefs -> Attitudes -> Action -> Results

Notice that belief comes after the programming. If you tell a child they are worthless or worthy, they may not believe it the first time, but they will with repetition. Repetition is key, which is why there are so many motivational speakers and self help books coming out each year: They don't work because they are not repeated, and that surge of motivation and positivity after a Tony Robbins seminar fades in a few hours or a few days.

I am beginning to play positive self talk YouTube videos every day that involve some dude reading out positive messages. Helmstetter says you don't even have to focus on the words, just have them on in the background. Over the course of weeks, months, years, the new positive programming will overwrite the poison that's seeped into our neural networks all our lives.

Positive self talk works, but please don't buy into the whole "You have to subscribe to it wholeheartedly from day one or else it won't work" mantra. As long as you repeat the messages, even if you have a counter argument for each of them (heaven knows I do, I fight valiantly against any notion that I am worth any more than utter trash), you will still be affected and begin healing. Eventually, and hopefully, we will begin saying these things to ourselves and completely alter our views on ourselves and our futures. When you're sitting at rock bottom, or approaching it at terminal velocity, any lifeline is worth the world.

The direction the whole positive thinking scene has gone drives me insane. People thinking that the "universe" rewards them for "being positive", but they've just got Helmstetter's process wrong. Unfortunately people seem to believe that you simply "snap" out of this. If it was that easy, no one would struggle at all. The negative programming occurred over your entire life up until this point, so it is only natural it takes a long time to program in the positives. So if you struggle with negative self talk, at the very least, I'm in it with you, too.

Here's the video I use, cringe but it grows on you: youtu.be/zXuR2WUH4Fc

And Helmstetter himself: youtu.be/rvzfnm9uk-0

** I thought I'd post a few long entries of things I believe might help one or two people out there. These are my opinions and my opinions alone, no one has to like them, read everything, or agree with me. This is for those who are like me, and not like the others. **