Dear Inner Critic

Shine a light.

Time to chat.

If we want to understand ourselves more we need to open up the lines of communication with IC.

When we Meet Our Inner Critic it can be an uncomfortable awakening. As we shine the light of awareness we may want to run and hide; what was hidden in the shadows becomes visible and we don’t always like what we see or feel.

Never fear there is help at hand.

First accept.

Accept this is who and how you are. I’ll let you into a wee secret, you are not alone. We all have an IC it’s just that many of us never meet them and therefore stay at the mercy of them. We react from the effects of all that negativity in our minds and we don’t even know we are doing it. I’d rather head for the land of choice myself, coming?

In this land of choice we decide we decided. The I am that I am makes the decisions not some collection of negative patterns and belief systems.

So how do we enter this land of choice?

We open up a dialogue with ourselves,with our Inner Critic or whatever you wish to call that part of yourself. The idea is to investigate, be curious, to find out what it is trying to tell you, what it wants for you.

In my experience our IC though warped, has our best interests at heart, and somewhere underneath the nasty negative surface there is a core of concern and care, you just need to find it.

As I have done this it has dramatically altered my relationship with that part of myself. I softened my view and see it as an ally in my journey of self-understanding. I can decide whether to believe it and carry on or I can make a more nurturing, kind and loving choice for myself.

How you have this dialogue will develop, here are some ideas to get you started:

Write to them; literally get out a pen and paper and converse. This is my preferred option and I have had some very surprising and enlightening conversations with myself.

I use different coloured pens for each part of myself, you could even try writing with your dominant hand and then letting IC reply using your non-dominant hand.

Imagine them; see yourself sitting in a chair across from them and see imagine asking them the questions you need answered, then listen to the reply.

In your head, when you become aware of the IC chatter say stop, and then listen, what do you hear, or how do you react, listen to yourself.

Give it a go.

Underneath all that negative nattering there lies a gift if you are willing to go looking.

I would love to hear how you get on what other ways you have found for contacting this part of yourself.