Whats so bad about bad self-talk?
The problem is, thoughtless self-criticism can be every bit as damaging to a speaker as a poor public evaluation, sometimes even more so. A poorly executed evaluation in a club, as painful as it may be, lasts at most three minutes, with thirty seconds to wrap up. Afterward, other club members generally rush to the speaker’s side to assuage the harm. But self-criticism can go on and on. After all, unless we share every negative thought with others, we have no one to refute them. What’s more, many of us tend to view our negative opinions of ourselves as more “objective” than those of outsiders, who are “just trying to be nice.” Negative self-evaluation isn’t only hurtful because it can play on a feedback loop in our heads, or because we might take it more seriously than we do the more appreciative words of others. According to Barbara Hoberman Levine, author of Your Body Believes Every Word You Say, any negative self-talk can have a punishing effect on the mind, body and spirit. We tell
