How To Manage Your Inner Critic

While balancing precariously on my hands as I attempted crow pose during a yoga session, out she came with a vengeance!

Showing no mercy and being punitive, she kept shouting at me: “What do you think you are doing? You are going to fall on your face and break your neck! The other people are better than you. You are useless! You will never get it right! You are too fat to balance on your arms. You are too weak…”

She carried on throughout the entire yoga practise. She didn’t care that yoga is just that, a practise, you don’t have to get it right. Yoga is about being kind and doing what you can at the time, but she didn’t care. After an hour, I felt awful.

Who is she, and why is she so mean? Why couldn’t I make her stop? She, she is my inner critic but in this case, I have renamed her my inner b!tch. With that level of nastiness, she was being an absolute mean b!tch.

What do you do when faced with a challenge and your inner critic shows up? Do you listen and let him/her rant endlessly? Do you shut them up? Do you agree with them?

After feeling awful about what she was saying and judging myself so harshly, I decided to take a new approach in future.

Friends?

Becoming friends with my inner critic is new to me. Like with any friend, you welcome them into your space. You allow them to be there. You listen to what they say, but don’t necessarily believe every word.

So, when your inner critic does show up, welcome him/her and accepting the challenge. Are they just scared? Is what they are saying true? How can I prove them wrong?

What do you do when your inner critic raises their voice?