5 Ways To Better Communicate With Yourself
5 Ways to Better Communicate With Yourself
We know good communication is so important, but how well are you really communicating with yourself? Here are 5 ways we’ve found that can help you improve your communication with yourself for MORE progress!
1. Make your distractions less attractive
2. Create some quiet time to listen
3. Keep your communication simple and clear
4. Come from a place of love instead of judgment
5. Show yourself you can be trusted (this one is SO important!)
Is there one that sticks out to you? Maybe one you’d like to work on? Let’s go over each one in a little more detail so you can learn how to actually implement at least one of these into your life.
1. Make Your Distractions Less Attractive
It’s no surprise that we live in a distracting world. Have you ever tried to talk to someone while they’re mid text or scrolling on their phone?! Ugh so annoying!
It’s easy to see how distractions can keep us from communicating well with others and it can be frustrating. But how often are we letting distractions prevent us from effective communication with ourselves?
One of the best ways we know to communicate better with yourself is by lessening your distractions so you can actually pay attention to what your body and mind are telling you! If you work at it, you can actually retrain your brain to make your biggest distractions less attractive to you so you can make the progress you were meant to make!
Quick question:
What’s your biggest distraction right now?
Hint: it might just be a little distraction that’s happening multiple times throughout the day
Quick challenge:
What’s one step you could take to retrain your brain so that your biggest distraction isn’t as attractive as you used to think?
ex. Leaving your phone outside your bedroom at night
Pro tip: Be sure to REPLACE your biggest distraction with something that is (or that will eventually) be more attractive to you. (ex. book, notebook, more quiet time with yourself, better food, meaningful conversation with your spouse, etc)
2. Create Some Quiet Time To Listen
In order to communicate better with yourself you need to intentionally make time to be still and listen to what it is you really need.
The best way we’ve found to do this is by creating little pockets of time throughout the day to listen to yourself.
This could look like:
Taking time to be quiet after you’ve listened to a podcast
Listening to music instead of a podcast
Driving, walking, cooking, or cleaning to music or silence
Taking a 10 Minute Reset
Saying a prayer
Going for a walk
Going on an Introvert Retreat
Having a quiet morning routine
Relax & listen to one of our favorite guided meditations
Journal
Going for a walk
If you feel like you don’t have any time to fit these into your schedule, then you’ll want to read our Time Management Guide For Creative Moms where we teach you how to find your magic hours… those little pockets of time throughout your day that are just for you! Plus a few of our other favorite strategies and mindset tools for managing your time like a pro.
3. Keep It Simple And Clear
Try practicing communicating with yourself in a very simple and clear way!
Set an intention first thing in the morning
Make your to do list simple, clear, doable and filled with only what matters most
Create a purpose statement that you can use to plan your yearly, monthly and weekly goals
Make a “priority pyramid.” Draw a little pyramid and fill in what is the most important to you (ex. God, taking care of yourself, taking care of others, community) and each day work your way from top to bottom.
4. Come From a Place of Love Instead of Judgment
It’s time to stop judging yourself! We know this can be SO hard! But there are a few ways you can communicate with yourself in a more loving way instead of judging yourself all the time.
Here’s how to stop judging yourself:
Be aware of your personal vocabulary and how you talk to yourself.
You could even jot down a list of words you notice yourself using the most & any you’d like to start using more of.
Create a personal mantra that can gently guide you like “Try again my love.”
Work on softening your inner critic.
Quiet that loud, judgmental voice inside your head so you can listen to your kind and loving inner mentor instead.
Drop the guilt and practice more generous self care.
Ask yourself these 4 questions to help you enjoy taking care of yourself and leave the guilt behind!
5. Show Yourself You Can Be Trusted
It’s important to remember that trust is built by small gestures. So show yourself in very small ways throughout your day that you can be trusted!
Do what you said you were going to do!
Fill your to do list with ONLY the things you know you can and will actually get done that day.
Tell yourself you’re going to be somewhere at a certain time (leave at least 10 minutes earlier) and then be there on time or early.
We cannot over-emphasize how important it is to learn how to trust yourself! This is by far one of the best skills we’ve learned in the last couple years. It’s given us the ability to actually DO what we say we’ll do.
We both spent so many years wanting to make progress on our goals and dreams but making excuses when it came time to take the action we said we’d take.
We dedicated a whole episode on Learning How To Trust Yourself where we talk all about how to develop that trust in yourself and start making real changes in your life.
If you struggle with trusting yourself like we have and want to finally change that, then you might enjoy our creative coaching sessions where we give you all the tools you need to finally trust yourself so you can do what matters most to you!
We help creative women each month during private 20-minute coaching sessions. We work on whatever it is they’re currently struggling with so they can create more, make more of an impact, and experience more peace and joy. You can learn more here and see if we currently have any spots available.
Want to listen in on our conversation?
Click below or on apple podcasts & choose episode 137 to listen to the full podcast episode.
You can also search The Progress Project on any podcast app including Spotify!
Podcast Ep. 137 5 Ways To Better Communicate With Yourself
We know good communication is so important, but how well are you communicating with yourself? Today we’re sharing 5 ways you can improve your communication with yourself for more progress.
Listen in to learn:
Why distraction is preventing effective communication
How to find quiet time to be still and listen for what you really need
How to keep communication simple and clear
How to stop judging yourself
The two most important times you need to focus on trusting yourself
Links Mentioned
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If you liked this topic, you’ll really love these blog posts & podcast episodes!
Ep. 117 Softening Your Inner Critic
Ep. 110 Time Management for Creative Moms
