Battling the voices of judgment, self-doubt, and inadequacy is exhausting. It can hold you back from doing and being all you desire. As that is true, you may wonder how can you possibly begin to experience a true sense of self-acceptance, compassion, and freedom when it feels as if your inner critic is holding you hostage? Through learning to relate to your inner critic differently, you can find freedom.
Normalizing the Voice
Perhaps it feels like you are the only one battling an inner critic. Yet, when it comes to this part of yourself, it can be comforting to reframe it and recognize that this is a phenomenon common to all humanity. Simply put, everyone experiences self-judgment in their own way. If you can recognize that it is normal and not something unique to you, you can begin taking this voice less personally and seriously.
Externalizing the Voice
Another helpful way to respond to the inner critic with neutrality rather than emotional reactivity is to practice externalizing the voice from yourself. The human brain is great at forcing meaning upon everything. It often does this with disempowering thoughts, beliefs, stories, and beliefs about yourself.
Just because the inner critic is present does not mean the things it says are true. While this voice is part of you, it is not the authority on who you are. If you can think of it as someone else saying those things, you can respond with self-compassion and self-empowerment.
Accepting the Voice and Allowing It to Guide You
It is common to think that accepting self-judgment—rather than judging yourself for it and continuing to fight against it—will keep you stuck. Although, the opposite is true. To change the relationship you have with yourself, you must accept what is present to you. With this acceptance, you can lean deeper into self-compassion and empowerment to fill the space where judgment used to be active.
The truth is, everyone has an inner critic that tells them things about themselves that are not inherently true—you have just given it power and assumed it is true because it is there. The inner critic is not invalid, as it exists to protect you. Use the things your inner critic says to guide you to the areas in your life you may need to work on or where you most need to show kindness toward yourself.
Through normalizing the voice, externalizing it from who you are, and accepting it as a message pointing you to where you need compassion rather than judgment, you can make peace with the inner critic.
It can be challenging to feel at war with yourself every day with voices of self-judgment, doubt, and criticism. We often learn to judge ourselves to protect ourselves from other people’s judgment. To lower levels of stress and anxiety, it’s important to make peace with the inner critic. Through normalizing, externalizing, and accepting the inner critic, you can shift the relationship you have with yourself and others. At Avalon Malibu, our team of compassionate and experienced individuals is here to support you. Call Avalon Malibu today at (844) 857-5992.
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