How You Speak to Yourself Matters: Three Strategies for Combating Negative Self-Talk

“Just think positive.”

Whether this is a refrain preached to you by well-meaning parents/coaches or if this phrase runs on a familiar frustrated loop within your own mind, dancers are often all too accustomed to the idea that they need to think good thoughts to get good results. However, while it is true that athletes who adopt a positive inner monologue have been shown to perform better than those with a negative or neutral mental script (Santos-Rosa et al., 2022), it is not always an easy feat to challenge one’s inner critic.

While your physical training is vital for ensuring you are at peak fitness going into a competition, the emotional impact of anxiety can often shape the way in which you perform. A specific route by which stress subsequently impacts performance is through self-talk. Whether the way you speak to yourself changes when you see your competitors warming up, side-stage as you prepare for your rotation, or even standing onstage ready to dance, negative thought patterns can derail your sense of confidence and make it incredibly hard to focus on technical notes.

So how can you change the way you speak to yourself to reach that elusive “positive” perspective? Is it possible to stop those negative thoughts given the emotionally charged setting of competitions?

While not a simple one-size-fits-all process like the phrase “just think positive” would indicate, sport psychology research has identified key techniques athletes can use to mitigate negative thoughts and respond to challenges in more confident ways.

Informed by these various techniques, the three Rs listed below present ACTIONABLE strategies that you can utilize for combatting negative self-talk.

Strategy 1: REAFFIRM

What: Reaffirming is the process of priming the brain before potentially stressful situations (e.g., in the car before dance class or when you wake up on competition day).

How: To try this, come up with some affirmations that remind you of your strengths and overall sense of capability. It is important that your affirmations feel specialized to you, but some examples could be “I got this,” “I am powerful and energized,” or “my body and mind are ready to perform.” If you struggle with believing your own inner voice, try recording your affirmations as voice notes to listen back to in times of stress or asking a trusted supporter (e.g., parent, coach, or peer) to remind you of your affirmations at key times of your competition day.

Why: The goal of this strategy is to boost your confidence and put your brain in the right frame of mind going into situations that may trigger negative thought patterns. Many famous athletes, such as Olympic champions Suni Lee and Katie Ledecky, share that they use affirmations to calm their nerves and drive themselves to perform at their best (Lucci, 2024).

Strategy 2: REFRAME

What: Reframing refers to the process of actively challenging negative thoughts.

How: An example of this strategy could be recognizing the negative thought, “I’ll never make it through this dance. It’s too hard, and I am not good enough,” and reframing it as, “That was harder than I expected, but I gave it my best. I am going to continue working on this, and with that consistent practice, I will improve to where I want to be.” Notice how this new thought addresses all the points of fear in the original thought and replaces them with a positive/productive perspective.

Why: Based on principles of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), the goal of reframing is to directly combat irrational negative thoughts (Suma et al., 2023). By drawing attention to exaggerations and logical fallacies, reframing has been shown to effectively help individuals gain perspective and adopt more positive inner narratives (Gustafsson & Lundqvist, 2020).

Strategy 3: RELEASE

What: If you find yourself growing frustrated when negative thoughts may inevitably still come up despite your attempts to reframe them, this third strategy can be used as an alternative. Releasing is the process of accepting that negative thoughts occur but letting go of the need to give these thoughts your time, energy, and focus. Therefore, this strategy views negative thoughts like cars passing on a highway—something to be observed with neutrality.

How: An example of this strategy could be that, as you line up backstage, you notice that your brain keeps repeating thoughts like “I can’t do this,” but instead of letting this thought dictate your feelings/behaviors, you categorize this thought as just a reaction not a fact. Thus, instead of becoming fixated on negative thoughts, you are able to refocus your attention and energy back to your performance.

Why: Based on principles of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), this process of neutrality towards negative self-talk helps to remove judgement around thoughts and focus an athlete’s energy on their behaviors instead (Hayes & Pierson, 2005). By treating negative thoughts as something to be observed not reacted to, athletes are better able to concentrate on acting in a way that aligns with their values (e.g., performing the way they trained for) rather than letting negative self-talk dictate their actions (Gross et al., 2016).

Use What Works for You

These strategies are not stagnant or linear; it’s totally fine to swap the order you use them or even skip strategies that do not resonate with you. Some people find affirmations hard because they struggle with self-belief. Other dancers may find that reframing takes too much mental energy while balancing all the technical corrections they need to think about. However, by practicing one, two, or all three of these strategies, you can start rewiring your brain to confidently combat negative self-talk.

Every time you reaffirm, reframe, or release you are training the muscle of your brain the same way you train your body in dance class. And, just like how your physical practice prepares you to give your best performance despite nerves, the way you prepare your mind determines how your brain will respond to competition anxiety as well.

As a competition approaches and your stress-related negative self-talk may increase, the three Rs can help you shift your self-talk from something you feel is unconscious to something you can actively prepare for and control.

Happy Training for both your body and your brain!

Savannah

References

Chand, S. P., Kuckel, D. P., & Huecker, M. R. (2023) Cognitive behavior therapy. StatPearls. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470241/

Gross, M., Moore, Z. E., Gardner, F. L., Wolanin, A. T., Pess, R., & Marks, D. R. (2016). An empirical examination comparing the mindfulness-acceptance-commitment approach and Psychological Skills Training for the mental health and sport performance of female student athletes. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 16(4), 431–451. https://doi.org/10.1080/1612197X.2016.1250802

Gustafsson, H., & Lundqvist. C. (2020). Cognitive behavioural therapy in performance enhancement. Applied Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology (pp. 113-128). 10.4324/9780429503702-8

Hayes, S.C., & Pierson, H. (2005). Acceptance and commitment therapy. In: Freeman, A., Felgoise, S.H., Nezu, C.M., Nezu, A.M., & Reinecke, M.A. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Cognitive Behavior Therapy. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-48581-8_1

Lucci, A. (2024, April 23). Reciting a mantra can alter your brain chemistry—in a good way. Women’s Health. https://www.womenshealthmag.com/health/a61916714/affirmations-mantras-mental-health-for-elite-athletes/

Santos-Rosa, F. J., Montero-Carretero, C., Gómez-Landero, L. A., Torregrossa, M., & Cervelló, E. (2022). Positive and negative spontaneous self-talk and performance in gymnastics: The role of contextual, personal and situational factors. Public Library of Science ONE, 17(3). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0265809