The Self-Talk Workout

Six Science-Backed Strategies to Dissolve Self-Criticism and Transform the Voice in Your Head

By: Rachel Goldsmith Turow PhD

Narrated by: Suzie Althens

Self-talk matters, but what methods of building healthy self-talk actually work? This how-to guide shares evidence-based techniques to go from being your own worst critic to your own best friend.

Perhaps you want to be nicer to yourself but don’t really know how to get there. Or maybe you’re someone who assumes self-criticism is a permanent part of your personality. Rest assured you’re not alone. Millions of people struggle with the toll that excessive self-criticism takes on their minds, energy levels, jobs, and relationships. And problems with self-talk vary dramatically from one person to the next: they can appear as mild but persistent inner criticism, full-blown self-loathing, or the pain of internalized oppression or abuse.

After over twenty years of working with individuals, groups, and classes on self-criticism and related challenges, psychologist and mindfulness teacher Dr. Rachel Goldsmith Turow offers the “self-talk workout”—six doable exercises that can help you replace self-criticism with self-kindness and self-encouragement.

Specific self-talk strategies such as “Spot the success,” “Fail forward,” and “Allowing all feelings, skillfully,” require just a few minutes a day. These skills can be practiced individually to transform your self-talk, or you can choose to combine two or more exercises to enhance your self-talk workout. Each chapter features a core exercise, variations on the strategy that might feel right for you, scientific studies supporting each approach, and success stories to inspire your own practice.

Turow includes examples from her own life and experiences as a psychotherapist, as well as lessons from her students and respected public figures such as Michelle Obama and Thich Nhat Hanh, to show that the burden of harsh self-criticism need not go on forever: the way that we relate to ourselves can be changed.

©2022 Rachel Turow (P)2022 Blackstone Publishing

Very helpful to me

I was turned onto this book via a meditation & fitness class at work, as it just mentioned in passing. I’m beyond grateful I looked this title up! It’s made a big difference in my (inner & outer) life and plan to get the hard copy to put practices into a more concrete form. Thank you!

So far so good

I have enjoyed this so far as the "Inhale my friend exhale my friend" has been engraved in my brain now and that is totally ok. The narrators voice is soothing to me.

Highly insightful and helpful!

This audiobook was simply stellar! It provided innumerable insights into how to optimize my own self talk habits and cultivate further personal growth. I highly recommend this audiobook!

Different meditations styles to conquer Self-Criticism

I gave it a four stars instead of a five for two reasons -
1) The reader voice was not as engaging as I would have hoped

2) The book could be shorter (too many examples to draw a single point.

To get the most out of this book, one should read it more than one once and try to practice each « workout »

This book was far too long.

Could have been summarized in a fraction of the time. The same things being repeated over and over again, and nothing new.