Discover your calming whisperer: Self-talk for stress relief

One of the best ways to get yourself out of the stress response and back to a place of calm is to discover your calming whisperer.

In this blog post you’ll find out what it means to be a calming whisperer, how to practise one of my calming self-talk techniques for stress relief, and how to find out what your current stress level is at any moment.

Who is your calming whisperer?

Your Self-Whisperer is who you can turn to during difficult times.

You can tap into this stress relief with self-talk by reminding yourself to exhale & relax your shoulders over and over during the day.

In fact, sometimes it’s good to say to yourself, “Put your shoulders on the floor or as close to it as you can get them.”

Vocalizing calming statements like this is not the same as the intrusive marching-band type statements we hear from our minds' mental spaces. It’s an exercise in bringing your stress level down by bringing intentional awareness to your actions.

How to talk to yourself based on your stress level

Using the Whitworth Stressometer, you can pinpoint your exact stress level at any point during the day.

Level 9, for example, is when you experience your worst feeling thoughts and are stuck in the Fight, Flight, and Freeze response.

This is the stage where your alarming self-talk is  reflexively delivered over a kind of loudspeaker in our minds and we do not choose it. 

Level 6, by contrast, is where you would experience preference-based better feeling thoughts. Here, calming self-talk is deliberately and voluntarily chosen by you and whispered to you via free-will. 

The calming whispers are a voluntary choice and need to be based on your personal preference of what you want to hear instead. 

Level 6 thought processes differ from level 9 thoughts in terms of accuracy and balanced ratios of positive and negative viewpoints. For all non-life threatening situations you will want to listen to your more accurate and balanced views from your level 6 preference based thoughts.

How to practice calming whispers

You can begin your very own Calming Whispers today. 

Write them down and choose to say them for all of your stressful yet non-life threatening situations, because for any stressor the alarming self-talk channel will just start playing due to your adrenaline levels. 

Remind yourself you can choose to tune into your calming self-talk channel anytime if you are not in danger. It is up to you. If you are in danger then listen to the alarming self-talk and get to safety, then begin your calming whispers. 

Your level six is the fix

We usually only have 3 or 4 scary self-talk statements  that our adrenaline surges intrusively deliver over and over again to our minds. 

Get to know what yours are. Write them down. 

Then choose 3 or 4 preference self-talk statements to talk back to each one of your scary adrenalized thoughts for all of your non-life threatening situations.

Using your Whitworth Stressometer allows your level 6 preferences to talk right back to your level 9 thoughts. Think of it as a conversation you are in charge of, finally. 

Your level 9 alarming thoughts are only questions about how scared to be. Allow your level 6 preference thoughts to be your chosen answers each time you are not in danger. 

Write down 3 or 4 preference based thoughts of what you prefer to believe about your hard times and have them ready to use everyday.

Use a worksheet to complete this form as needed.