Out of a million pieces of information from our surroundings, we are able to pick out the one that somehow directly concerns us.
For example, we suddenly realize that the person who passed us on a bike is an acquaintance we haven’t seen since school, or that we have the same jacket in our closet as the person walking in front of us, etc.
We filter out this information from our surroundings in response to memory tasks stored in our brain.
Many people don’t realize that our thoughts about ourselves (internal dialogue) work the same way. If in our silent language we tell ourselves that “we are good for nothing”, then when taking on professional or private challenges, we will feel greater anxiety. This will be an emotion that signals an internal struggle not only with motivation and fear of results, but also indicates a preconceived uncertainty about our skills and predispositions.
The very phrase “I’m good for nothing “” is a very powerful message that touches upon our identity. Right from the start, it is extremely important to identify such thoughts and reframe them into specific areas where I feel uncertainty about my skills, e.g., “I lacked certain competencies in job X, I didn’t achieve the desired results, which is why I feel this way now”.” This form of internal dialogue allows for concrete actions and change.
If the topic of changing your way of thinking is interesting to you and you want to have a greater and more conscious influence on the direction your life is heading, we invite you to IPI. A new edition of the “NLP Practitioner” course starts in January, where we address, among other things, issues such as internal dialogue.
Author Anna Modrzewska
