Many of you may have heard of this story of two saplings – when one sapling, over a period of time when told loving things, grew to become leafy and healthy; the other one which was just abused at and cursed at, eventually withered. Words act on us like that. Welcome to episode 24 of Self love with Sharmila. In this episode we will talk about why we should watch our self-talk. What others say, make an impact on our emotional well-being, affect our self-esteem and self-perception. What we tell ourselves, affect us much more than that. Watch how you react to a difficult situation – you either feel the situation is going to crush you and say – this is not for me. I can’t deal with it. Or you can take it as a challenge and say, I can get over it and find a way around it, and move on. But how do you speak to yourself with selflove and build yourself with your words? Though self-compassion. Positive self-talk can help you lift your mood. “If you can change your – I can’t do this anymore to let me try and find how I can work on this,” you immediately shift your self-talk to a more empowered pitch. Sportsmen do it all the time. A habit of positive self-talk based on selflove can help you shape your world in a whole different way – reduce stress and give clarity where it lacks. Negative self-talk stems from self-blame, focusing on the negative of a situation, catastrophizing or expecting the worst beyond logic, and polarising events as bad or good and not trying to find a middle-ground. So, watch your self-talk. Every time you catch yourself going down a negative spiral, switch out – divert to a more positive thought. As you practice this over a time, you will see your entire approach to problem solving change. It will also begin to tell on your wellbeing. Also, actively cut out negative feedback and surround yourself with positive people. We are like sponges and others negativity often seeps in, so watch that too. Give yourself a positive push each morning, give yourself a pat on the back each night. Make it a selflove habit. On that selflove vitamin shot, I end this episode and I shall be back again with yet another energising episode next Sunday. Till then, keep listening.