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I used to meditate in the morning, go out into the world and blow my calm by 10am. I would start undoing any positive thinking or reconnecting I had done in my 30 minutes of meditation with complaints and sarcasm. The complaints and sarcasm would spiral into angry, resentful thoughts. They would just feed of each other all day long until the next morning at meditation.

After a while I discovered positive speaking. Positive thinking is a pillar of personal development. However, I submit that it is 1000 times more difficult to manage your thoughts than it is to manage your speech. I started to watch what I said in order to maintain my mental state of peace and harmony. I adopted a teaching that my grandmother tried to instill: If I had nothing good to say, I said nothing.

At first, I felt stiffled throughout the day. An odd thing happened after a while, the seemingly ceaseless chatter began to slow down. It had no outlet for its judgemental, critical voice. It became quieter and quieter. I didn’t even feel like it was suppressed. I felt as though it left the building. It was silenced. It just realized that it no longer had a place.

Now that was only towards other people, but we are all one. The departure of my critic freed me up to try new things and not be perfect. Positive speaking led to positive thinking. It opened the space up for a more positive internal dialog. I am able to hold my meditative peace for later into the day.

Today my day is structured with meditation and walks that help me to maintain my mental state of peace and calm. However, this method of speaking positively was extremely effective in helping me to maintain that state when I couldn’t take a walk. It continues to serve me well today as I move in the world speaking fewer words of complaint, sarcasm, and judgement. I add to the conversation and I am a part of solutions.

I invite you to try this out for about 3 weeks. It takes about 10 days for the chatter to realize that it’s not going to get an out.