Activity 6 - AM I MY OWN BEST FRIEND?

( 15 points)

Sometimes your greatest enemy is yourself. Do you agree? Sometimes other people are
generally more kind to you than you are to yourself. Without being conscious of it, you tend to
unreservedly put yourself down instead of encouraging yourself. You tend to disregard rather
than cherish the person that you are.

This activity poses the question-Am I my own best friend? And facilities an exploration
for an answer by getting you in touch with your internal dialogues. These internal dialogues are
things you tell yourself about yourself and about the situation as you experience then. Conscious
or not, you engage in these dialogues every moment of a day. Hopefully, as you listen to your
internal dialogues, you become more aware of the content of your self-talk and work towards
more positive and healthy self-talks.

Think of a situation in the recent past where you felt very frustrated with yourself. Recall
what caused the frustration, who was involved and what effect it had on you. Relive that
experience in your mind. Slowly listen to what you are telling yourself about yourself in that
experience of frustration. Write out the dialogue going on inside you.

(5 points) - You have identified a frustrating situation that was caused by somebody and the
situation has greatly affected you. You have illustrated spontaneously your self-talk reflecting
what’s going on inside you.

This time, recall a situation recently where you experienced failure. What kind of failure
did you experience and what impact did it have on you? Relive it in your mind and get in touch
with what you were telling yourself about yourself during the experience of failure. Write out
what you hear inside you.

(5 points) You have identified a situation that made you feel you were a failure and its impact on
you. You have illustrated spontaneously your self-talk reflecting what’s going on inside you.
 Get in touch also with a recent event where you experience strong rejection from
someone whom you consider significant. What happened? Who was involved? How did you
react? Once more, relive the event and about you? Write out spontaneously what is surfacing in
your mind.
(5 points) You have spontaneously shared an experience of rejection from a significant other and
shared without inhibitions your feelings towards it until now.