Let me ask you something.
How many times a day do you actually tell yourself that you did something well?
How many times a day do you compliment yourself?
And how many times a day do you tell yourself off?
Tell yourself that you're useless,
That you can't do things,
That you can't do things perfectly,
Or that you'll never be good enough.
Over the years,
From our childhood,
We pick up everything that our environment tells us,
Everything how the people around us behave.
So we build an inner voice inside our head.
And this voice can either be a cheerleader and cheer us and encourage us,
Or it can be a voice that's constantly telling us how we made a bad decision,
Or in what ways we are wrong in what we're thinking,
Or just constantly criticizing us,
Really.
So how many times a day,
Or what percentage of the day,
Do you criticize yourself,
Put yourself down,
Talk negatively about yourself,
Or make excuses,
Blame others,
Tell yourself it's not your fault?
And what percentage of your day do you tell yourself that everything will be okay?
Encourage yourself and start to learn from the situation.
But it's important to understand that your inner critique is not you.
So I ask you now,
Give your inner critique a name now.
This could be as simple as Karen or Bob,
Or whatever you think is fitting for your inner critique.
This way,
You can see that when they come nagging you and criticizing you and telling you why you're not good enough or why you should be aiming for more,
That it's not actually your thought.
It's just this inner critique,
This criticizing Bob or Karen that you built over the years.
So there are a few things that you can do to actually get rid of these voices in your head.
One thing you can do is simply to ignore it,
Like an annoying person.
You just simply ignore them and tell them that you don't have time for this.
Something else that you can do is this voice inside your head,
Because it lives within you,
It's very easily influenced.
So just simply ask yourself,
Do I actually think that what this voice is telling me is true?
Do I actually think that I should do better?
Or do I know that I've done everything I could to achieve what I wanted to achieve?
And another simple trick is to just simply observe your inner critique and just become aware that this voice is there.
And just simply choose a new thought.
If you don't like what you're thinking about,
Just simply observe,
Accept that it's there and move on from that thought.
Be direct,
Your inner Karen,
Your inner Bob.
I know that this sounds harder to execute and it's easier said than done,
But give yourself compassion and with time and with practice,
You'll be able to separate yourself from the negative,
Criticizing thoughts.
You'll be able to make a difference between where you are encouraging yourself and wanting to just simply do better and where you are sabotaging your success,
Your happiness and your fulfillment.
So take your power back from your inner critique and know that you can change it and you can empower yourself to be your own best friend and treat yourself and talk to yourself like you would encourage someone that you care for.
I hope that this was helpful and please check out the other resources that I have about inner critique and self compassion and how to be your own best friend.
