Making friends with your Inner Critic

Let talk about that inner critic of yours! I don’t know about you, but wow, she can be LOUD! That voice that tries to sabotage you, dismisses your great ideas and just puts you down – booooooo to negative self talk!

But can you really quiet her – can you really extinguish that inner critic? I mean she is kind of there to keep you safe – like if you were about to jump in a deep lake and your inner critic reminded you that you cannot swim – that kind of keeping you safe – probably shouldn’t get rid of that to be fair….

How about neutralizing their sabotaging power though? I feel like that is a worthwhile exercise. We are not about that negativity here, now are we?!

Here’s some helpful tips to try:

• Practice self-awareness. Ask yourself – where is this criticism really coming from? Is it someone else’s voice?
• Give your critic a silly name, a funny shape, a wild color.
• What does past evidence show about your achievements, whats the evidence that you have achieved greatly in your life.
• Step back and evaluate through an objective, neutral lens so you can reframe your thoughts.
• Do not compare yourself to others.
• Practice self gratitude.
• Choose again – when you hear the self criticism – stop and say nope, choose again – choose another thought that is positive – in fact, keep choosing until you get a great thought – don’t settle for a mediocre evaluation of yourself! You’re not bypassing here, you do get to choose though.
• Celebrate them wins, especially the ‘small’ ones!

Keep these in mind in your journaling practice can be a very powerful way to work with this inner critic. The weird negative thought that may be coming through on repeat – its ok to stop, and write just on that so you can get to the root of it. Maybe you get some clarity on the inner critics negative thought of the day.

Try this: Affirmations:

Don’t knock it ‘til you’ve tried it! Affirmations can be powerful things – and not in a recite something every day and it will magically appear – we’re not getting the perfect butt or beaming Brad Pitt into our living rooms with this one, but it is definitely a great practice for keeping you on track and reminding you of the best things about you and for YOU! (and you probably came up with these in moments of clarity and genius – so listen to her she’s the smart version of you!)

I have used affirmations that I have crafted during new moon or full moon ceremonies, after a long journaling session or meditation where I was searching for an answer or even after I weathered a particularly crappy situation. Affirmations can keep you on track towards the good thing, reminding you of all of your great qualities and achievements, and actually make you feel really damn good about yourself.

Let’s give it a try, shall we? And you can save this anywhere or even write it on a post-it and stick it somewhere you will see it every day. For example, I do one affirmation per post-it and stick them inside my medicine cabinet in my bathroom so I see them every morning as I am getting ready for my day (started with them on the mirror but steamy showers made them fall off after only a few days).

Keeping our inner critic in mind, here’s a few that might be helpful to start you off:

• I am talented and I will continue to progress and grow.
• My dreams are nobody’s business but mine.
• I make progress, that’s my perfection.
• I am organized and I will continue to finish what I start.
• Rejection will not keep me from my dreams.
• I am better than my best day so far in life.
• Failure is a natural part of life and I will learn a great deal from it.
• Success can feel scary and unknown but I am worthy of success.

And there are so many more you can add yourself that are relevant to you and where you are on your journey.

Get creative and affirm your awesomeness today!

Be Well, Real Well,
Tracey xo