"Doggone it, people like me."

The messages we allow into our head

Before he became the senator from Minnesota, Al Franken was an actor on Saturday Night Live. One of his trademark skits involved the character of Stuart Smalley, whose daily affirmations included the line, "I'm good enough. I'm smart enough. And doggone it, people like me."  It made a joke of the idea that looking in the mirror and saying positive things about ourselves made them true.

My new film, Self Talk, is not a satire. It explores the damaging effects of the negative messages we tell ourselves.  These messages can become ingrained in our thoughts due a variety of circumstances, including bullying, societal prejudices or our own thinking errors.  It can destroy our self worth, and leaves us vulnerable to the world, just like a baby.  This baby metaphor found its way into the film. We hear the music, Good Evening, Good Night by Johannes Brahms playing, with a mobile of negative messages twirling in the air.  We see a nude figure in the corner rocking back and forth trying to sooth his baby soul.  Then the figure is seen walking down a hallway and stops at a door. The door represents whatever we need to step into in order to quash these negative messages.

The door to a positive self image

For me, my door was art. For someone else, it might be counseling by a licensed professional. It involves ongoing, often challenging work and isn’t easily achieved by talking into a mirror for 2 minutes out of our day.

What we tell ourselves is powerful. It can determine the outcome of a sport’s game, a business and our very lives. Talk might be cheap but a positive internal dialogue can be worth its weight in gold. What are we doing to secure this sound investment?

You can watch the entire short film by following the link here.  You can also join this blog by clicking on the follow link in the upper right corner next to Google +..