You Have An Inner Critic
Jan 16, 2024
Quote of the Week
If you gave your inner genius as much credence as your inner critic, you would be light years ahead of where you now stand. Alan Cohen
Insight Into Your Inner Critic
You have an Inner Critic, although you may not be aware of it
Your inner critic is that nagging voice inside you that constantly judges, criticizes, and doubts your abilities. It is a voice of fear, self-doubt, insecurity, scarcity, cynicism, and pessimism.
All women experience this internal voice of uncertainty in some form or another.
But, most of us are not aware of it. We have been listening to this voice for so long that it has become a constant background noise that accompanies us.
It shows up differently for each of us:
- Some women find their Inner Critic more pronounced in their professional lives.
- Others encounter it regarding their abilities as mothers or partners.
- For some, it focuses on appearance, body image, or the aging process.
- And then there are those whose inner dialogue revolves primarily around their creative aspirations, whether it be making music, painting, or writing.
My Inner Critic showed up in all four areas but was most pronounced in my professional life and body image.
How does your Inner Critic show up for you? Let's start talking about our Inner Critics. We all have one but we rarely admit that to other women. Let's normalize the conversation about our Inner Critics to reduce their power!
One Benefit of Taming Your Inner Critic
Improved self-confidence
By taming your Inner Critic, you can increase your self-esteem and develop a more positive self-image. This allows you to have greater belief in yourself and your abilities.
One Thing You Can Do to Start Taming Your Inner Critic
The Disturbance Inventory
Do a Google search on how to tame or silence your Inner Critic and the most common advice is to become aware of the voice of your Inner Critic.
The $64 million dollar question is how do you do that?
The problem is: Your mind is like an iceberg: the tip of the iceberg are the thoughts and feelings you are aware of. Your Inner Critic operates in the larger part of the iceberg that you cannot see and are not aware of.
How do you become aware of the voice in your head that operates at the subconscious level, which means that it operates below your awareness?
You examine every disturbance you have no matter how big or small.
What I mean by disturbance?
When your Inner Critic judges you, someone else, or something that happened, it triggers a negative emotion which causes you to feel irritated, annoyed, or bothered.
That is a disturbance. The definition of a disturbance is “the interruption of a settled and peaceful condition.”
When your “settled and peaceful condition” is disturbed, it is a signal that your Inner Critic is chattering away in your head criticizing, nagging, or putting you down.
A Disturbance Inventory helps you use something that disturbed you to become conscious of how your Inner Critic disturbed you.
This inventory is based on Dr. Allen Berger’s Emotional Sobriety Inventory. Dr. Berger is an internationally recognized expert in the science of addiction and recovery, psychotherapist and author of several books on recovery and emotional sobriety.
Although it was originally designed as a tool for people who are in recovery from substance abuse, it is an extremely powerful way for those of us who struggle with an insidious toxic Inner Critic.
Please share your experience with the Inventory. Email me at [email protected]. I'd love to whether you found the Inventory to be insightful.