How to Avoid the Inner Critic
How to avoid the inner critic that is constantly beating you up. Avoiding giving in to your inner critic requires elements of self-compassion and personal encouragement. Instead of scolding, shaming, and fault finding, take steps to improve your self-worth, resilience, and overall mood and happiness.
Take time to observe situations. Instead of reacting quickly, respond thoughtfully. Notice your inclination to overreact to criticism, real or imagined. Once you can label these situations, you can leave them behind.
If you can’t foster your hopes and dreams, who can? Build up your nurturing side to counter any feelings of doubt or discouragement you feel. Instead of downplaying your accomplishments, your inner nurturer celebrates your success and allows you to savor the moment. You start to truly feel loving and kind to yourself. The perfectionist slowly starts to exit stage left.
Avoid the Inner Critic
Steps to take:
- Should you feel anger and frustration that seems out of proportion to the actual setback you’ve experienced, take a moment to stop self-condemnation.
- If you find that you are blaming yourself, take time to reflect on events before concluding you are at fault. This may take practice, especially if you were taught to be self-critical.
- Pay attention to your inner dialogue and stop any harshness. When you step back from this type of tone, you can stop reinforcing malicious, damaging behaviour.
- Instead, repeat the negative phrase as a positive affirmation. You will likely be surprised at how much this simple act can instill confidence and self-reliance.
- You can also try reimagining your inner critic as someone ridiculous that no one would ever take seriously.
- Think about how much self-loathing it takes to think about yourself that much. Maybe that will help you be so tired it is always thinking about yourself that you will leave your inner critic alone.
Learning To Avoid the Inner Critic
When forming a rebuttal against a negative inner voice, be prepared. Write down or keep an online journal of your success stories and things for which you are grateful. Once you begin to screen your feelings to isolate and banish harmful images, you can focus on your efforts’ positive aspects.
Recognize your good qualities by imagining a good friend or trusted ally, convincing you that you can accomplish anything you want. Take every opportunity to reward yourself when things go well.
We don’t do enough of this. We are blessed beyond measure and have so much to be grateful for. By recognizing your value, you can mitigate the adverse effects of an inner critic. Find comfort and strength in believing everything you need you to have within yourself. With this knowledge and resolve, you can steer yourself to a sense of calm and happiness.
Avoid the Inner Critic
Seek professional Counseling
To assist you in your journey it’s always a good idea to ask for help and assistance. It’s hard to pull ourselves from ourselves. Our best thinking got us where we are. A good therapist can help bring awareness to those negative maladaptive thought patterns that ruminate over and over again. This is the best gift you can give yourself. Seek mental health counselling today and live a full and rich life free from the inner critic.
Call us today at 407-967-1327 or email us at info@therapyhec.com . We are here to help.
