Talk it out, sweat it out: How self-talk helped me conquer my fears

Hi Everyone,

I am Ambika Sharma. I  live in New Delhi. I am pursuing Masters in Computer Applications and I stammer.

Every person has a hobby. I too have one. I have been playing table tennis for a very long time. I started playing during my graduation and won two gold medals consecutively.

But this time, winning a medal was even more important because it was my hat trick gold medal. I dreamt to have that medal. My desire to win the game was really high and that’s what made it even more challenging.

I didn’t want to leave any stone untouched for it. For a week, I made practice as the first priority and a day before the game, I was intensely nervous. This was not because of lack of skills, strategies or stamina, rather lack of confidence. I used to think that I can’t handle nervousness well.

During the game, I made illogical errors that favored the opponent. I sensed the need to transform my irrational thoughts to rational ones. For a nanosecond, I closed my eyes. In that brief amount of time, I reminded myself of the consistent practice I did. This helped me to believe in my skill set. Then, I opened my eyes and instructed my mind to watch the game as a spectator. This opened me to fresh strategies I could use. Thereafter, I said to myself to come back in the game. I picked the racket and implemented one of the strategies that I just visualized. Seriously, it helped me and in no time I was way ahead than my opponent. Finally, I won the game. My eyes were filled with tears while receiving the medal. 🙂

Once I start to see my thoughts as they are, without judging them, they lost their power over my mind and I became free to have new and affirmative thoughts of belief. In such moments, only we can identify and transform our thoughts. When I started to curate new and positive thoughts by giving instruction to myself, I was able to have my lost confidence back.

While stammering, we usually come across situations which seem difficult to handle. Instead of loosing confidence, just close your eyes and start talking to yourself !!