Break Free from Negative Self Talk: Waiting for Weight Loss Series Ep 6

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Speaker 1: Life Audio. Hey friend, I'm so glad you are with us on this Waiting for Weight Loss journey through LENT. Today's episode six, and we're talking about something you've been talking about in the community a lot, so I'm really excited to broach this topic today, and that is negative self talk. Some of you even said that you were giving it up for a LNT, and I hope that's going well, because that's an amazing thing to give up. But here's my question for yours we are going today. Are you mean? Are you mean? I mean? I know you're not mean to other people. Most of us focused on our image, try really really hard to be perceived as nice and kind and loving and gracious. We're only mean to ourselves. Do you say things like this to yourself in the mirror? You're so fat, you're so ugly, you're so lazy. You shouldn't go out in public. You look so gross. Everyone thinks you're gross. You should never wear a swimsuit. Your husband is going to be disgusted by your body. No one will ever love you. Get your act together, slob, You're an embarrassment. Yikes, harsh words, right? Can you imagine if you miss the introduction to this episode, and you just like fast forwarded to these comments, and you thought that that was me talking to you, saying those things to you. You would unsubscribe right away, wouldn't you. You'd be in shock. You'd be like, I want nothing to do with her. Ever, she's so mean, And yet we say these things to ourselves all day, every day. We're down right nasty. Now, to be sure, some of this meanness comes from the enemy of our souls. Let's talk about this. John ten Ten tells us that the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy with comments and whispers like the ones I just mentioned. He steals our joy, he kills our confidence, and he destroys our ability to live free in Jesus. Now, women often argue with me and they say, it's not Satan telling me these things. How the I'm saying these things to me? And they're partially right. Some of these statements we have adopted for ourselves as truth. But here's how I think it actually worked. Satan probably whispered that lie to us a long time ago, Like for me, I know it was as early as the third grade, and then somewhere along the line I started helping him out I adopted his lies as my truth, and I started saying them to myself, like, he doesn't even have to help me anymore. I can be mean enough to me for the both of us. Yikes. So stopping negative self talk is a lot more complex than some of the social media reels make it seem like, yes, you should take thoughts captive, for sure, but it goes deeper than that, Like we do a lot of work with clients trying to find that deeper spot, like why are they still believing those lies of the enemy about themselves? And why do they just keep repeating those same lives in themselves over and over again? And until you find that root, it's really hard just to take the thoughts captive. That really oversimplifies it, even though that is Scripture's direction and something we should do. So without going too deep here, it's really about your belief system. Do you believe what God says about you is true? Or do you believe what you think and feel about yourself is true? I like to put it like this, You don't have to believe everything you think, and yet do you? I mean, the answer might be both, Yeah, of course I believe what God says and yeah, of course I believe what I believe. But here's the truth. One of those belief systems is winning. One of those belief systems is determining the way you actually live. So I'm writing a brand new book on this right now, to come out in twenty twenty seven. But here's some super practical help I hope for today. You can't stop negative self talk until you notice it. Most of us don't even hear the mean things we say to ourselves. Sometimes it's the same phrases we repeat to ourselves over and over again. Maybe like the phrases we just talked about. Sometimes we can vividly remember a time and a place when mean words were spoken over us or said to us, and we can picture the person saying them to us again and again and again. It's that mom that said, no one will ever marry you unless you lose weight. You hear it in your head every time you try and clothes. Or it's a grandma that always said being fat is ugly and lazy, and the scale shows some signs of perimeno base, and you are hearing grandma's voice over and over and over. It's repeating in your head, you must be lazy. And ugly because that's what Grandma said. Maybe these words weren't even said directly to you. Maybe they were said like around you, about other people. Maybe you watched a sibling get berated for her size, or maybe your family always had comments about people on television. But you internalize these mean words as your own. You've become your own biggest bully with a lifetime collection of cruel world words. So my question for you today is this what was said to you that you can't forget? What mean words have gripped your heart and turned you into a body image bully. Then my task for you is this, start listening to them. I don't mean believing them, I mean listening for them. Write them down if you're brave enough. This is an exercise we do in my forty Day Body Image workbook, and then we talk about it on the forty Day Body Image Journey. Bringing these statements to the light is going to help you hear them better next time and recognize them as lies. And then let's go to the community. Let's be vulnerable there with each other today. What are those harsh words that you say to yourself that no one else can hear? I think in the community. You're gonna find women who understand, women who can empathize, and perhaps together we can encourage each other to be kind to our bodies instead of being cruel. If you're not part of the community yet, I hope you'll join us at Waiting for weeightloss dot com. It's absolutely free. When you sign in, you'll get instructions as to how to join, and if you're already in, hey, go there and be part of this conversation. Now, thanks again for listening. Let's see in the next episode. The Compared To podcast is proud to be part of the Life Audio podcast network from Great Mission Podcast. Go to lifeaudio dot com. Hey, friend, would you check out the date on that episode you just listened to? Yeah, it's been a minute. Listening to old podcast is almost like reading my diary from several years ago. In some cases, it's even a little embarrassing. So instead of listening straight through season by season, can I encourage you to skip ahead? I released brand new episodes every Tuesday and Friday, and if you're not sure where to start, you can go to Improvebody Image dot com find the start here button and I've got several episodes listed and categorized so you can find the topics that are of most interest to you. Your time is valuable, so skip straight to the good stuff. I'm glad you're here. Thanks for letting me be a part of your body image and food freedom journey.