Who Is Your Inner Critic?

What voice is your inner critic? I bet it’s not yours.

Who is your inner critic?

What voice do you hear? I bet it’s not yours.

This is such a tough one for many of us.

It’s the reason we hold ourselves back. Why we don’t want to speak up and stand out. Why we’d rather NOT do something and risk failing. Because that’s what the inner critic does. It has a purpose, a function.

It wants to keep us safe. From whatever perceived danger it senses. My inner critic has been talking to me A LOT since I started on this path of coaching and organizing retreats. The same way it did when I first started leading yoga classes.

You’re not good enough, there are already so many others doing this, who would be interested in your offerings, you are too old, too…. whatever.

The thing with this voice is, is that this part of you probably developed at an early age. When your parents were telling you to not climb the tree because you were too small at the time or were keeping you away from the water because you couldn’t swim yet. They were trying to keep you safe. And you internalized that.

Then it became that voice that always makes you anxious when there is something new ahead. That wants to keep your four year old self safe. There are more extreme examples of this, but you get the picture. Your inner critic is not telling your adult self these things – your inner critic is still talking to you like you’re four years old!

Knowing this, you can tell your inner critic to take a back seat. Tell it that you know it’s trying to keep you out of harm’s way and that you can handle it. You can even give it a name and talk to it in a reassuring way.

Give it a try and let me know how it goes the next time you are entering unfamiliar territory!

XO

Yvonne

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