When Your Inner Critic Blames You First

You spot the typo a second after the email has gone out. Or a friend goes quiet after something you said. Before you have had time to think, a voice inside you has already decided it was your fault. That voice is your inner critic. It is quick and familiar, and it usually sounds like it is telling you the truth. This five-lesson course is about softening that self-blame. You begin by noticing your inner critic the moment it speaks, and by asking whether being hard on yourself has ever really helped. Then you practice turning toward yourself instead of against yourself, especially in the moments when you already know better and still blame yourself. You are not asked to fight your inner critic or to fix yourself. Each lesson runs seven to twelve minutes and includes a guided practice you can return to the next time something goes wrong. Dr. Femke Bakker helps people soften their inner critic. A behavioral scientist and meditation teacher, she has taught thousands of people to be gentler with themselves, and she created the Selfgentleness Perspective, the approach behind this course.