4 Ways to Quiet Your Inner Critic

Many of us have heard the saying “We are our own worse critic”. There are many different reasons for this including, but not limited to from imposter syndrome, childhood, or society in general. The good news is that YOU CAN CHANGE THIS! Here are a few ways to quiet your inner critic and hone your inner voice to call you to your higher self.

1. Speak to yourself as you would a child. Imagine a child learning to walk that has fallen down and instead of praising them for what they did or encouraging them to get back up, we tell them they could have done better and to stay down instead? Sounds ludicrous doesn’t it? But this is what we do to ourselves many times over by being impatient with our growth, talking ourselves out of things, and not giving ourselves enough credit for our effort. So, the next time you find that you are being too harsh on yourself just stop and instantly start praising yourself for how far you have come.
2. Listen to compliments of trusted family and friends. Many of us are walking around oblivious of skills and virtues we possess because they come effortless to us. However, just because we don’t recognize them as such does not mean that others do not. The next time you are having a general conversation or are coming down on yourself to a trusted party and you hear them complimenting you on something, write it down so that you may reference it when your inner critic starts to make an appearance. More importantly: BELIEVE THEM!
3. Affirm yourself. When our inner critic is loud, our inner voice or highest self is quiet or non-existent. When you are feeling great or when you have just accomplished a goal, more than likely you have positive things to say about yourself. Write these things down and refer back to them the next time you need to calm your inner critic.
4. Figure out where these thoughts are coming from. This one may take a bit more work, but it’s still worth it. Maybe your friend made a comment about your weight. Maybe your parents told you not to pursue your dreams out of their own fear or expectations. Whatever the case, although some people may have our best intentions at heart, their words have cut us so deep that we are walking around for years telling ourselves the same things regardless of if they are true or not. The scars you are wearing from their words were not of your own doing, however patching those scars are. One way to combat this is to figure out where some of these thoughts came from and to GIVE PEOPLE BACK THEIR STUFF! These piercing words do not belong to you. In the words of Steve Jobs, “Don’t let the noise of others drown out your inner voice”.