Neutral Thinking

Often times we swing towards negative or positive self-talk and our mindset follows. It is in human nature to categorize everything and put a label to it as either good or bad, negative or positive. It is normal to place judgement on nearly everything, as it makes us feel safe and our brain is able to make connections with previous knowledge.

Sometimes, things aren’t “good” or “bad” and they just are. Shifting to this grey area and thinking neutrally can be a game changer for our self-talk and building habits geared toward productive thinking. Learning to gain a positive outlook is a challenge, especially if we have a tendency to be negative. It can be easier to create neutral reframing statements rather than swing from negative to positive.

For example, I may think to myself “wow, that was a horrible performance I just had”. It would be hard to readjust this statement to be positive if I don’t believe there were any positive aspects. A neutral reframe would be “I showed up and I played my sport with what I had to give today”. It is free of judgement and still entails what you did, just not how you did.

Neutral thinking can be especially useful if you have poor body image. It becomes automatic to think "ugh I hate my legs they're so big!" and we start to tear down our confidence. Again, it would be a massive shift to think something like "I love my body" if we don't actually feel that deep down right now. We can use neutral thinking to gain acceptance and appreciation for our body "my legs help do the things I love to do everyday", that is a true statement.

Start to let go of those judgements you place on yourself and your performance. Focus on the facts, not the feelings. Let me know where you are going to shift your thinking from negative to neutral!