Today’s been a busy day. Middle of the afternoon, lots of stuff to still get done. I took a break and pulled out a puzzle book. After 20 minutes I said to myself, “Ok. Quit wasting time. Back to work.”
Yikes. That was an unkind way to describe what I had just been doing. This whole talk to yourself kindly thing also requires listening to the things your internal narrator says. When it is unkind or negative or scolding or judgmental, you have to screech to a halt and undo the negative with a positive/optimistic declaration.
So I said to myself, “That was fun, but enough’s enough.” Yikes, still not quite the voice of the Internal Optimistic Narrator. Still judgmental. I tried again. This time with a control that makes it sound contrived, “Doing puzzles sure is fun. Glad I’m so clever to recognize when to give myself a break. Now back to work with a new vigor. Woo Hoo. Can’t wait.”
As over thought as that sounds, it is a much kinder reflection of how I had just spent the last 20 minutes. The exercise of deliberately stopping myself and taking a couple of stabs at getting the narration right, will help me in the future to cut myself some slack, to no longer describe taking a break as “wasting time.”
Working on your Internal Optimistic Narrator is a life long task and practice is the only way you will gradually shift in the positive direction. Just like so many things undertaken for self-improvement, you need to commit to the work. Working on your Internal Optimistic Narrator can change your life.
Smile. Be happy. Be happier!
Ruth
P.S.: That’s Broken Keyboard Smiley. His smiling face reminds me not to get too upset about the key falling off. It is after all just a broken keyboard-clearly not worth any angst. My Internal Optimistic Narrator tells me to smile back every time I push his little nose to type that key.