Wellness Wednesday…Hump Day..,whatever you want to call it, but we are here, its mid-week, we’re making it through and we are pushing towards whatever that goal is, we’re trying to attain. In the meantime, I wanted to discuss a little about “labeling.” This is another cognitive distortion that if we aren’t careful can have us putting ourselves in a box that can be difficult for us to climb out of.

 Why we label? 

• We sometimes start labeling ourselves, when we have done something wrong, something doesn’t go as planned, piggybacking off what someone has said about you, etc. When you can specifically target this thought distortion and having that awareness of what you’re doing that is the first step towards changing because you need to start recognizing when you’re doing these things, with no awareness how can it be changed?
• We don’t allow ourselves to make mistakes. This is something we have to let go of because we can’t and won’t ever be perfect. We can however have that self-awareness that things can change and we can control how we take those steps towards what we’re trying to adjust. When you aren’t able to let go of perfectionist thinking like this, you continue to allow situations or people to define who you are and we can’t do that because that takes us away from allowing ourselves to truly live.  This makes us learn that we will not be able to control everything and the expectations we have on our world  needed to be reduced.

Something to Try

When you get into that mindset of labeling, which really is another way you’re bringing your self-worth down, its learning ways to restructure this way of thinking.

• Start by saying I am or I feel _____________________ (label you are thinking) for example “I am worthless.” Then in this moment close your eyes and repeat this 5x in your head
• Then close your eyes again and repeat this next statement 5x adding the same label you used. “Something in me feels _________________ (label).”

When you can take yourself outside of the not so great “labeling” you put on yourself, you realize the work you need to do to change certain things within you that cause you to have the thoughts you have. You learn to accept all the things about you and work to change the things that need a bit of tweaking. You just learn that you are a valuable asset regardless of your flaws and you are an evolving being that is on a journey that hasn’t quite stopped yet.

Try this out when needed and learn to appreciate and over-use the good labels that we at times dismiss in the midst of chaos.

Thanks for reading

Alvie