Hello and welcome to this meditation on recognising the difference between your inner guide and your inner critic.
We all have an internal dialogue that accompanies us throughout our days.
It encourages us and dissuades us.
It critiques circumstances,
People and ourselves.
It tells us what we like or dislike.
It warns us and foretells catastrophes and aims to keep us in comfort zones of familiarity.
Our inner critic is created through conditioning.
It was formed through our experiences of the outside world and what we were shown and taught by others in our informative years.
It gets added to whilst reinforcing long-held beliefs and those beliefs do not have to hold any truth to them.
They are just repeated and embedded as though they are a universal truth and then we navigate our worlds acting as though they are.
It is this internalised voice of others,
Of an outside world,
That has put conditions and expectations on you and requires you to act and behave in certain ways.
When listening to this voice,
You have accompanying feelings that do not feel good to you.
The voice can create a sense of doom,
Urgency and not-enoughness.
This is your inner critic and it can increase its volume and velocity if you dare to embark on new paths and try out new ways of being.
It wants to keep you in what it views as safe and familiar settings.
It does not want change and it does not want to be questioned.
But there is another voice and it resides within you and this is your inner guide.
It may not speak to you in words.
It may come through as a sense,
A feeling,
Imagery you can see in your mind's eye.
It is calm.
It holds no sense of urgency within it but it encourages you to act in the interests of your highest self.
It does not include comparisons with others or critiques of yourself or anyone else.
It is at peace and accompanies you in all your endeavours but you have to be tuned into it and we are used to listening to our inner critics.
We have been taught to listen to them and pay attention to them and they shout the loudest.
We are attuned to them but we can learn to attune to our inner guides instead and learn to bring the volume down on the voice of the inner critic.
We can choose which voice we listen to and work with and we can choose over and over again in every moment.
The more we tune in to our inner guide,
The more accustomed we become to its voice,
The way it sounds and the way it feels.
The differences are night and day.
One derives from fear,
The other from love.
Let's now relax into a meditation and affirm all the ways that we can listen to and be guided by the inner voice led by love.
Make sure you're in a room where you will not be disturbed and you can choose to either sit or lie down.
Close your eyes and take several deep breaths,
Breathing in through your nose and then releasing the breath through your mouth.
Take your time.
This is a space where you are safe to relax and give back to yourself.
Scan through your body from the top of your head to the soles of your feet,
Observing each part of your body,
Releasing any tension you may notice that is being held on to.
Breathe deeply into any parts that are tight and breathe out and release.
Allow your breathing to return to normal and let your body sink into a deeply relaxed state.
Allow your mind to wander and know that there is no need to hold on to anything and that at this moment,
There is nothing that you need to do,
Except to be here.
I am safe.
I am at peace.
I am guided through life at all times.
It is safe for me to let go and trust in the universe and in myself.
I honour my own path and know that this is exactly where I need to be.
I am learning to listen to my inner guide.
I know when my inner guide is speaking to me because there is love and kindness present and I feel calm and relaxed in my body.
I am choosing to move from a space of love.
It is safe for me to love myself exactly as I am.
I am enough and always will be.
I am worthy and valuable exactly as I am.
I am love in action.
I trust in my choices and take loving action effortlessly and easily.
It is easy to love myself and others.
I am open to receiving loving guidance.
I have been created in love.
I give myself permission to pursue my dreams.
I know I am being guided towards the best outcome for my highest self.
I advocate for myself and my dreams.
I pursue my dreams and take action towards them.
I grant myself permission to live my life the way I choose to.
I am allowed to be myself.
I fully express myself.
I accept myself exactly as I am.
I forgive myself.
I allow myself to be human.
I am allowed to make mistakes.
I am human.
I believe in the goodness that lives within me.
I believe in myself and my abilities.
I acknowledge myself in positive ways every day.
Well done.
You have taken the time to reconnect with your inner self and remember the loving essence of who you are.
Take your time and slowly allow sounds and sensations to come back into your awareness.
Wiggle your toes and your fingers and take a couple of deep breaths.
Breathe in through your nose and exhale through your mouth.
When you are ready,
Open your eyes.
You are here and you are loved.
