HOW I TAMED THE MEAN VOICE IN MY HEAD

Don’t Be A Dick To Yourself

I did the best I could at the time with the information I had

Photo by Ashley Jurius on Unsplash

Be careful how you are talking to yourself because you are listening.— Lisa M. Hayes

When my kids were little and they would scream from the other room, “Mommmm! There is a spider on the wall!”, I would shout back “Give it a name, and make it your pet!”

My strategy was to help them get them over their fear of bugs by turning the situation upside down.

Looking at hard things from a different perspective is a helpful tool to stop beating yourself up over stuff. Using a new framework sometimes stops the downward spiral.

Some Examples From My Own Life

• When I got into a terrible fight with my adult son, it caused me to go deeper into my own pain and past. I had lost my son’s relationship as I knew it, but gained something fresh and beautiful.
• I struggled with parts of my childhood trauma. The experiences were too icky to share, to gross to admit. In an effort to help other women, I began baby steps of sharing about it in my art and writings. I also began speaking about it — saying the words outloud. I learned that, sadly, I am not the only…