What do you tell yourself about yourself?
Our self-talk is powerful. It affects our entire being—from our mood to our concept of who we are and what we’re capable of!
That’s why we need to guard our thinking—what are we saying about ourselves all day?
We also need to guard what we allow others to say about us.
This week on the podcast, I talk with Dr. Allen Frances about this very subject.
Dr. Frances has spent his entire career giving people psychiatric diagnoses in hopes of helping them get better.
An accurate diagnosis is incredibly useful. Patients feels understood and encouraged—they realize they aren’t alone! There’s a name for what they’re experiencing and a treatment plan to help them get better!
But an inaccurate diagnosis labels us as disordered or abnormal—when we’re not.
Which is incredibly harmful.
Because diagnoses are powerful labels that influence how we perceive ourselves and what we believe we can expect from ourselves.
And we very often live up to expectations—our own and others’.
The well established placebo effect demonstrates that what we believe is going on with us makes a huge difference—even when what we believe is going on with us is isn’t actually happening!
What we tell ourselves about ourselves matters.
What we allow others to tell us about ourselves also matters.
Photo by Autumn Goodman on Unsplash