Hello and welcome to this meditation to quiet your inner critic.
To begin,
Let's allow ourselves to get into a comfortable position.
Maybe straightening our posture.
Relaxing our shoulders.
Keeping the head evenly balanced.
And resting the hands in the lap.
Once you've settled in,
Gently close your eyes.
And spend a few moments just focusing on your breath.
Allowing any outside distractions to float away.
Follow the rise and fall of your belly and your chest.
Noticing what is present here.
Noticing the state of your breath today.
Maybe it's short or long.
Maybe it's shallow or deep.
There's no need to change the breath in any way right now.
Just observe the natural state of it.
We can do this by sensing and feeling.
And tuning into the sensations of the in-breath.
And the out-breath.
Settling back in awareness.
Noticing how the breath comes and goes.
Allow your sense of awareness to be spacious.
And open and receptive.
And notice how everything comes and goes in this inner place of awareness.
Imagine this awareness is as vast as the sky.
It's open.
Spacious.
And you are present to everything that happens in it.
The sounds.
Sensations.
Feelings.
Thoughts.
And you notice that you are not your sensations,
Your thoughts,
Or your feelings.
It's the place of awareness that's your real home.
And whenever you feel pulled to any of these thoughts or feelings,
Just allow yourself to take a deep breath.
Take a step back to your awareness.
And observe that everything comes and goes from this place of detachment.
Now let's begin to deepen this breath a little bit.
So taking a long,
Deep breath in through the nose.
And breathing out slowly and gently through the mouth.
So you're now letting your body know that it's time to slow down and relax.
And by breathing more deeply,
We are grounding ourselves to the present moment.
We're not rushing anywhere.
There's nowhere else we're trying to get to.
Nothing else to accomplish.
We're just being present with our breath.
Breathing in deeply.
Breathing out slowly.
Breathing in.
Breathing out.
Breathing in.
And breathing out.
Now slow down your control of the breath until it returns to a natural and soothing rhythm.
Just let your breath be soft and natural,
Coming in and out of your nose.
And spend a few moments here noticing any areas of tension or discomfort in your body.
Just noticing and acknowledging what's present without any judgment,
Without trying to change anything.
Just observe and accept.
Letting things be exactly as they are.
And the more we allow for any discomforting or troubling sensations to exist,
The closer we arrive at accepting them.
Accepting all our sensations,
Our thoughts,
Our emotions from this place of compassion and loving kindness that allows our emotions to be what they are and not to hold any power over us.
And with this understanding in the mind,
Bring the mind to a troubling emotion that you've had recently.
Maybe this was anger,
Jealousy or fear.
Begin to explore your thoughts and feelings about this emotion.
And notice what thoughts or feelings arise as you hold this emotion in your mind.
Maybe you feel ashamed of it.
Maybe you think you should avoid it.
Maybe you think you're weak or foolish because you've experienced it.
Just bring your attention to your body.
Noticing if you experience any tension or tightness as you think about this experience and this emotion.
Now acknowledge how all these thoughts and labels come from your very own inner critic.
And we all have an inner critic inside ourselves.
This is the part of us that judges our thoughts and actions more harshly than anyone else ever will.
And this comes from holding unreasonable expectations of ourselves and allowing the inner critic to step up whenever we fail to meet those unachievable expectations.
And when we judge ourselves,
We distance ourselves away from the opportunity of self-growth.
Self-judgment carries heavy and unpleasant feelings such as anxiety and depression that can later fall into other areas of our lives and onto the people we love.
So just take this moment to acknowledge those heavy thoughts and feelings that you're carrying.
Offer yourself some words of support and compassion.
Holding yourself with care and understanding.
Just be here for yourself as you would a friend.
And repeating the following phrases.
I honor and support myself.
I love and accept myself.
I practice peace and patience.
I am worthy of my own compassion and kindness.
Whenever you notice yourself being self-critical or judgmental,
The very first step is identifying your inner critic,
Labeling it,
Observing what it says and does without judgment,
And then lovingly letting it go.
When you recognize a self-critical thought,
Simply recognize that this is the voice of your inner critic.
And you may practice thinking,
Thank you inner critic,
I see you,
I lovingly let you go.
And when we observe our inner critic in action,
We may want to remind ourselves that our thoughts are just words,
And our beliefs are just that,
Beliefs,
Not facts.
There are nothing more than just an unhelpful noise of our endlessly chattering minds.
And we have the power to take back from our inner critic,
And create some space to think more clearly and compassionately.
So whenever you find yourself being self-critical,
Instead of saying something such as,
I'm foolish,
You may want to say,
My inner critic suggests I'm foolish.
That way you're creating distance between the thought and yourself,
Being able to observe the thoughts more objectively.
And the intentions of our inner critic are not necessarily evil,
Most of the time they are only trying to help us and keep us safe.
So once we've identified and recognized our inner critic,
We can thank them for their care,
Appreciate their good intentions,
And lovingly let them go.
And as this practice comes to an end,
Begin to come back to your surroundings,
Stretching your body gently,
Wiggling your fingers and your toes,
Moving your head side to side,
And when you're ready,
You can open your eyes.
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