With the school year and new work schedules finally set in motion, many of us are beginning to hear a mix of positivity and venting from our friends. Settling into a new schedule is never easy, and during this time there are plentiful moments of tearful panic.
Many forgotten assignments, appointments and commitments will haunt us and tempt us into thinking that we’ve bitten off more than we can chew. Don’t give in, as your inner-strength and resiliency will most certainly surprise you in the end.
A phrase that frequents the conversations I have with my peers and colleagues is “self-talk.” Essentially, self-talk is the manner in which we speak to ourselves — internally and verbally — throughout every moment of our lives. While the relationship between one’s positivity or negativity and their health is often considered a soft science, the harmful effects of long-term stress upon the body are clear.
Approaching our challenges and mistakes with a positive attitude never makes us foolish or naïve. Instead, it encourages us to have hope to reason ourselves onward. I myself am an extremely optimistic person, and never once have I looked back in hindsight and wished I had planned for the worst.
We cannot allow a paperwork mishap or an overlooked assignment to define our capability as workers and students. We are not our mistakes. After all, it’s our previous mistakes that help shape who we are today. By viewing our downfalls as learning experiences, we can reduce the undue pressure we stack upon our shoulders.
Some of us are more pessimistic in nature, but this does not mean we cannot work toward more positive self-talk. At least once a day, stop and assess the way you’ve treated yourself thus far. Have you been insulting yourself? Labeling yourself? If so, strive to make a conscious effort to curb these self-deprecating thoughts.
While a good portion of our self-talk stems from fairly logical understandings of our relationship with our environment, these thoughts can often become skewed. A heightened self-consciousness might cause us to take constructive criticism harshly, for example. Misconceptions about how closely others are scrutinizing our work and depending on us for survival can also lead to off-kilter negativity.
These misconceptions often result in us personalizing a negative event. In a relevant example to many university students, if a night out with friends or a date is canceled, we might be tempted to assume and thus convince ourselves that we are the reason for the cancelation. This then snowballs into us eventually believing that nobody wants to spend time with us.
Take time each day to process how you’re responding to the bumps in the road. As you continue to transition into your new schedule, take the time to think about the good you are doing that overshadows any mishaps.
sjdickma@indiana.edu
