Begin by finding a comfortable position.
Let your body settle and bring your awareness to your breath.
Just notice it without changing anything,
The inhale,
The exhale,
The natural rhythm that's been with you your entire life.
Now place one hand on your heart,
Feel the warmth of your palm against your chest.
This is your heart space,
Your center,
The place where you're always welcome,
Always home,
Always enough.
Take a breath into this space,
Imagine breathing directly into your heart.
And as you exhale,
Allow yourself to soften,
Just a little,
Knowing that there's nothing to fix right now,
Nothing to improve.
You can simply be.
There's a voice that's been following you for a long time,
A voice that says you're not doing enough,
Not being enough,
Not succeeding enough,
A voice that measures your worth by your productivity,
Your achievements,
Or your ability to meet some impossible standard.
This voice shows up when your resources are low,
When your body is running on empty,
Exhausted,
Undernourished,
Uncentered,
Fighting illness,
When stress has freed your nervous system,
When emotional turbulence has knocked you off kilter.
This is when the self-doubt floods in,
When the judgment feels most convincing.
This is when you start spiraling into shame,
But here's what I want you to understand,
That voice is not the truth about you.
It's all code,
Old programming.
It's a part of you that learned somewhere along the way that love and worthiness had to be earned,
That you had to perform,
Achieve,
And prove yourself to matter.
But you are not that voice,
You are the awareness that hears it,
You the consciousness that notices when it's speaking,
And that changes everything.
Notice something important.
The inner critic doesn't show up randomly,
It shows up when you're depleted,
When your body is tired,
Hungry,
Unwell,
When your nervous system is stressed and your emotional reserves are low.
This is actually valuable information.
The critic isn't telling you the truth about your worth,
It's telling you that your system needs care.
It's a signal that you need to rest.
You need nourishment,
Grounding,
Or gentle attention to what your body and heart need.
When you're resourced,
When you've slept,
Nourished yourself,
Taken the time to ground yourself in silence or in nature,
That voice has lost power.
It's still there,
But it's quieter,
Easier to see for what it is,
An old pattern,
Not a truth.
So the practice isn't to hate the critic or fight it into silence,
The practice is to recognize it as a messenger telling you,
I need care,
I need rest,
I need to come back to center.
You don't need to eliminate this part of yourself,
You don't need to banish the critic or pretend it doesn't exist.
What you need is to integrate it,
To meet it with curiosity instead of resistance,
To understand what it's trying to protect you from.
The critic believes it's keeping you safe,
It thinks that if it judges you harshly enough,
You'll work harder,
Be better,
And finally be acceptable.
It doesn't realize that its strategy is exhausting you,
That shame and self-doubt don't create lasting change,
They create suffering.
So instead of fighting this part of you,
You're going to speak to it with compassion.
Imagine saying to that critical voice,
I see you,
I know you're trying to help,
But I don't need you to be so harsh with me anymore.
I am safe,
I can grow and change from a place of kindness.
When you meet the critic with gentleness instead of shame,
Something softens,
The voice loses its grip,
Not because you've defeated it but because you've given it permission to rest.
Bring your attention back to your breath,
Back to your heart space,
And remember this truth that you keep forgetting,
You are not your thoughts,
You are not your accomplishments or your failures,
You are not the stories the critic tells about you.
You are consciousness itself,
Aware and awake.
You are the sacred space in which all experience unfolds.
Your worth isn't something you earn through doing or being or succeeding,
Your worth is woven into the fabric of your existence,
It cannot be added to or taken away.
When the critic speaks,
You can return here,
To your breath,
To your heart,
To the silence that holds everything,
To the knowing that you are whole,
Even when parts of you are struggling,
Especially when parts of you are struggling.
Here's your practice moving forward.
When you notice the critic rising,
When you feel the self doubt,
The unworthiness,
The judgment for not being enough,
Pause,
Just for a moment,
Don't spiral into shame,
Don't let it pull you under,
Instead ask yourself,
What does my body need right now?
Am I tired,
Hungry,
Thirsty,
Stressed,
Ungrounded?
Is there something simple I can do to care for myself in this moment?
Maybe you need to eat,
Maybe you need to step outside and feel the earth under your feet,
Maybe you need to sit in silence for five minutes and just breathe,
Maybe you need to write in your journal and shift your perspective from judgment to curiosity.
When you meet yourself with this kind of care,
The critic softens,
The spiral stops,
Not because you've forced it to,
But because you've chosen compassion over criticism,
You've chosen presence over pattern.
If you're sitting,
Feel your body in the chair,
Feel your feet on the floor.
If you're lying down,
Feel the surface beneath you holding your weight,
You are supported,
You are held by the earth itself.
Take a deep breath in,
And as you exhale,
Imagine roots growing from the base of your spine down into the ground,
Deep roots anchoring you,
Connecting you to something solid,
Stable and unchanging.
You are not fragile,
You are not a thought floating in space,
You are a being rooted in the earth,
Held by life itself.
And from this place of groundedness,
The critic has no power.
As you prepare to return to your day,
Take one more moment to place your hand on your heart,
Feel the warmth there,
The steady beat,
The life moving through you without any effort at all.
You don't need to criticize yourself into growth,
You don't need to shame yourself into worthiness.
The most revolutionary thing you can do is meet yourself with kindness,
Especially when you're tired,
Especially when you're struggling,
Especially when the critic is loud.
Remember,
You are not your thoughts,
You are the awareness that notices them.
You are not your patterns,
You are the one who can choose differently.
You are not broken,
You are whole,
Learning to be gentle with all the parts of yourself that forgot.
When the critic speaks,
Return to your breath,
Return to your heart,
Return to the earth beneath you,
And choose compassion,
Choose presence,
Choose to see yourself the way the divine sees you,
Perfect,
Whole,
And worthy of infinite gentleness.
Take one final deep breath in,
And let it go.
You are enough,
And you always have been.
May you walk through this day knowing that your worth is unshakable.
May you catch the critic's voice before it pulls you under,
And may you meet it with the compassion you would offer a dear friend.
May you remember to nourish yourself,
Rest,
And ground yourself,
And return to the silence that holds you.
May you be gentle with yourself when you stumble,
May you trust that you are held by something far greater than your doubts,
And may you remember again and again that kindness is not weakness,
It is the bravest thing you can offer yourself.
Go gently,
You are so loved.
