My Inner Critic

"Your hair is a mess!"

"Those shorts are getting tight on you."

"Why haven't you finished that project yet?"

"You're eating junk food again?"

I have this voice inside my head. It's not the friendliest of voices. It's the voice that's always been inside me for as long as I can remember. I just assumed that it was my voice, and that whatever it said was true. I never questioned the validity of it. I believed everything it told me. Afterall, why would I lie to myself?

Recently, I've started challenging this voice. I've begun questioning whether its statements are actually true. The answer is almost always NO. And it's making me miserable.

So why doesn't my inner voice say things like, "Wow, you look really beautiful," or "I'm so proud of you for getting up early this morning to take a walk,"" or "It makes sense that you haven't finished that project yet. You've had a lot on your plate recently." Messages like this would be supportive, motivating and inspiring. They would be things a friend would say if I were struggling.

But when it come to love, praise and support my inner voice is silent. It only wants to be judgmental and mean. It's like my own personal critic inside my head. I can't run from it. I can't hide from it. But I have a choice - whether or not to believe it.

What if in response to this critical voice, I added a supportive voice? It might not come natural, but it could be purposefully cultivated. To counteract the negative. To be supportive and loving. To maybe even tell the truth.

I can hear my inner critic sighing with contempt. Afterall it's just trying to save me from embarrassment and judgment from others, by judging myself first. But it hasn't worked. It has just kept me from being who I am truly meant to be.

So what is there to lose? Let's give this a shot. What do you say......?

"You go girl!"

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