Do you ever get those negative thoughts in your head that just won't go away; the kind of negative thoughts that will keep you up all night in fear and break-out in a full-blown panic attack when you are alone? We are gathered here, in this very moment, to talk about all those negative thoughts… and we are here to tell them they can kiss our butts.

I have been battling these negative thoughts myself for my whole life, and I know I'm not alone. Whether it was from a shady friend, an ex-significant other, teachers, parents, or even from the general public; there are more of us than I can count that have experienced emotional abuse. This external negativity can become so bad that it even becomes a part of our own internal thinking. If you hear "you're fat," "you're useless," "you're lazy" enough times you may start to believe it, and even tell it to yourself. That is where that internal voice can come from, and boy can it feel near enough to impossible to get rid of. I'm here to tell a part of my story in the hopes that it can help others, like yourselves, become the fabulous humans you're capable of becoming.

I knew I needed some sort of game plan for school this school semester; it is my first full-time semester of college in about a year. My previous approach to school wasn't the best. So, I sat down and made myself some goals academically. Both long-term and short-term goals with rewards for each. I then added some motivational notes to read to myself, if I ever feel like I can't achieve my goals I set. My motivational notes were everything that articles say they should be. They consisted of "I will", "I can", and "It's okay" statements. At first, I felt so optimistic and reading them made me so happy. As the day went on, I started to feel panicky. Unknowingly, I was still going over the motivational notes in my head and that's when my negative thoughts started to appear. Once I was aware of what was going on, the panicking only got worse. Suddenly, I lost hope all together and I was shutting down my own goals. I could not accept the motivational notes as factual about myself, even though I knew they were what I needed to succeed. I got to the point to where I couldn't even fall asleep because I needed the answer to my question: "why can't I just accept these notes?"

The answer finally came to me after some analyzing of the situation and I had to write it all out. Think about how many times you have been told those negative phrases that are now etched into your internal thought process. It's usually been more than just one single day of people telling you negative things, right? So why give yourself one occasional day of throwing together some positive words and expect yourself to be healed over night? For every time some one has said something negative about you, it will take an equal amount, if not more, of times saying positive things to yourself to heal the way in which you think. You must tell yourself not just once every 3 months, but every day that you ARE NOT worthless, you ARE beautiful, and that it's OKAY to not have the answers. The overall point is that you can't fix a long-term issue with a simple overnight solution. So, if you're feeling anxious and low on self-esteem, set those goals you always wanted to achieve. Add a list of motivational notes. Don't just read them to yourself when your energy is feeling low. Read them to yourself out loud every day. If you don't accept them as true statements on the first day that is okay! Just try it for a week at least. It may even help if a close friend reads them out loud to you. You CAN undo the mindset that has been molded by the opinions of others. Now go grab a notebook and tell yourself how you CAN feel confident, you CAN pass that class, you CAN eat healthy, you CAN get in a good sleeping habit, you CAN have your dream job, you CAN rock this!