January 14th, 2019
How often do you hear from your inner critic? If you are like most people, your inner critic is THE dominant voice in your head. It only sleeps when you do and it is always, always ready to judge you or to bring up some past, painful, dark episode to keep you weak and unable to shut it up.
Everyone has moments or years that they would like to forget. Your inner critic knows exactly when to bring up those hope to be forgotten times because your inner critic is all about control.
Your inner critic may seem like a singular, critical voice but actually it’s not. Your inner critic is simply a combination of all the voices, real and imagined, that have criticized you since you were born.
Those voices are there because they were hurtful and we tend to keep a memory bank of the things that hurt us so that we can hopefully sidestep them in the future. It’s good for prowling tigers we’ve heard but terrible for the hurtful words we’ve heard.
“What would my Mother, teacher, friends, pastor, etc. say if they knew what I did, thought, said?” The answer to these questions is entirely imagined but we store them away as truths and our inner critic has full access to them at all times.
So what can we do to quiet the inner critic so that our self esteem can grow? What can we do to push it aside so that we can actually enjoy our successes and our victories?
We are all aware of our own inner critic but we are so very ignorant of our inner cheerleader. Both exist but only one is associated with hurt and since we want to avoid pain we focus on that one and ignore the other.
What would happen if you woke up the inner cheerleader? How would you feel if when you felt down there was an inner voice that picked you up? Life changing!
Your inner cheerleader is also made up of many voices. The voices that said you were good looking. They said you were strong. They said you were smart and a good person. They said you could do it. They said you were kind and lovable. They said you were the best. Those voices weren’t hurtful, quite the opposite, but they faded quickly and your focus went elsewhere to protect you.
You’re older and wiser now and it’s time to bring out your inner cheerleader. It’s time to go looking for your inner cheerleader each and every time your inner critic starts to talk. It’s time to remember the people who really loved you and of the good things they said. It’s time to turn up the volume of your positive self talk. It’s time you heard from the good voices, the successes and the victories.
It’s time to turn on the lights inside of you. It’s time to raise the blinds and let the light in. It’s time you started listening to a different voice, the one that loves you.
Sundrops On Life -Better Thoughts. Better Days.
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