It can be a subtle habit. You can send a lot of messages to yourself that are self destructive.
You have the power to change that. Catch yourself when you are saying something negative like, “I’m having a senior moment”. You’re not really having a senior moment. You’re having brain clutter. As I say to my husband, “You have too many file folders in your brain. You need to start deleting.”
Stop being self destructive
Get that spam out of your mind, all of those negative self destructive thoughts.
My mother and her mother were both strong women. My mother taught me women were just as good as men if not better. My mother and grandmother’s self-esteem remained high throughout their lives.
My mother had a reaction to Demerol when she was 72. When I told her that elderly people were less tolerant of Demerol, she shot back, “Are you calling me old?” I thought it was funny at the time, Now that age 72 is getting closer, I understand better why she reacted that way.
How often do we say, “I wish I could do that?”
We don’t think of that as being self destructive, as that being limiting, but in fact it is. What we’re saying is, “I couldn’t do that.” What I suggest people do (and I know it works because I do it and other people do it) is that every time you catch yourself saying something negative immediately turn it around. Put it into a positive and say it out loud with a smile.
“I can do anything I set my mind to.”
“I can do anything I want to.”
If you think you’re having a senior moment, say “I remember everything that’s important.”
Transform your self destructive thoughts
It’s in the act of transforming your thoughts, transforming your language because nobody is a worse enemy than we are to ourselves. All we need to do is to listen to ourselves and transform the self destructive messages into positive ones to just wipe that spam out of our minds. We do it on our computer, so we might just as well in our closed circuit in our brains.
Think about the power of the suggestions in the messages that we give ourselves. When you hear yourself saying, “That was stupid” about something you did, stop yourself. Give yourself a positive message instead. It is a subtle habit but makes all the difference in your confidence.
Listen in as I talk to Bonnie Fatio, a confident Swiss woman who discusses age esteem and self-esteem in one of my podcasts: How to Combat Your Worst Enemy. Listen at this link.