Requirements:

Anywhere.  One facilitator.  3-5 minutes.

Instructions:

“Find a partner.  You’re going to take turns bragging on yourself to your partner.  Things you’re good at, things you like about yourself.  No qualifiers, no hemming and hawing.  If you can’t think of anything else to say, then repeat something you’ve already said.  Decide who’s gonna go first.  You’ll each have one full minute.  Go!”

Debrief Questions:

Was it easy, difficult, what?  Why?

Key Points:

We do this because, how many times in a day do we talk negatively to ourselves?  ‘I can’t believe I did that, I’m such an idiot!’  etc etc.  Sexism and other kinds of oppression often play into this, with some of us getting messages that we’re not as capable, as smart, as worthy.  Sometimes we internalize this negativity with the messages we give ourselves.  Self talk is a very important component of self defense.  If we aren’t giving ourselves positive loving messages, if we don’t believe in ourselves, how are we going to defend against the negative messages or intent we can get from others?  In order to practice self-defense, we need to truly believe that we are worth defending.