Sometimes self-care is practicing self-love and self-kindness. One way you can do this is to unlearn the nasty habit of gaslighting yourself. We’ve all heard this term thrown around loosely these days but what does it mean? Gaslighting is a form of emotional abuse and manipulation enacted on someone to make them question their own thoughts, feelings, reality, and even sanity. It can break down your confidence bit by bit until you are a shell of yourself, so why not make sure that’s something we never enact on ourselves?
How do we recognize that we are gaslighting ourselves? Do a self- check.
Are you suppressing emotions? “That shouldn’t make me upset”
Are you suppressing thoughts? “Am I just being too sensitive?”
So how do we combat this? An excellent Healthline article talks about using affirmations to acknowledge our emotions, reactions, and experiences. When you begin to recognize that you are indeed gaslighting yourself through suppression of how you really feel, “I’m just being crazy. Maybe it’s all my fault etc” stop everything. Take a deep breath and reflect. Try telling yourself some of these powerful affirmations-
My feelings are valid.
I know how that made me feel, I did not imagine it.
My experiences are real and valid.
I am enough just as I am.
Someone placing blame on me doesn’t always make it true.
What’s one thing I can do right now to practice self-compassion?
Gaslighting can do real damage to your mental health. It can be internalized and tear you down. We cannot control others, but we can control how we treat ourselves.
Check out the full article for even more tips and information on unlearning this behavior: https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/unlearning-self-gaslighting#What-does-self-gaslighting-look-like?