What Everyone Ought To Know About Their Inner Critic ~

Think of a time when your inner voice was very critical of you for something

• Not knowing what you want
• Not being able to make a decision
• You Ignore taking action that you know is going to help you get to your goals
• You feel paralyzed by fear and can’t take action

Meet your inner critic. The Inner Critic is a powerful force within that tries to keep you from changing, even if you want to. Change brings uncertainty and with uncertainty comes fear. The Inner Critic uses fear as fuel to keep you feeling small, overwhelmed and confused.

Who is the Inner Critic?

The Inner Critic is an archetype, or inner character, one of many, that influences your behavior.

Archetypes are invisible guides on your journey and each one brings you gifts, lessons and challenges. You experience archetypes as tendencies to do and think things in a certain way.

Archetypes are universal patterns that every culture knows. Some examples are mother, father, rebel, child, hero, victim, warrior, artist, seeker, teacher, explorer, detective, healer and the list goes on.

When I say “he is a good father” you get a picture in your mind of what a good father looks like and you know what characteristics and behaviors he would possess.

The Inner Critic is an archetype that is part of everyone’s cast of characters.

You might recognize your inner critic as the part of you that is afraid to go for what you really want, you might fear the changes success would bring. The Inner Critic strives for “perfection”. You know when you keep fine-tuning something to perfection before you can say it is finished. The Inner Critic creates feelings of doubt which leads to procrastinating taking the action that will bring success.

Why Is the Inner Critic Important?

When you have awareness of your Inner Critic as one of your cast of characters you know yourself better, you can recognize when your thoughts are coming from the Inner Critic, and you can make a choice about who is in charge.

The Purpose of the Inner Critic

The Inner Critic brings you the gift of seeing the many ways you undermine or betray yourself. Examples are saying you don’t know, procrastination, doubt or perfectionism.

The Inner Critic comes in at times of low self-confidence influencing your decision making. Low self-confidence leads to making choices that limit or block your own empowerment & success.

When you acknowledge the inner critic as a character within you that has a voice and an opinion, you will find it calls your attention to situations where you might be in danger of being criticized or of criticizing yourself.

The first step I took when I became aware of my inner critic was to realize her purpose was to keep me safe. Then I made a plan that would allow the inner critic to warn me and also let me be in charge of my thinking and actions. I like to think of it this way. I am a coach and the inner critic is one of the players on my team. As the coach I decide when listen to and when to put players into the game. I listen to the inner critic and as the coach I make the final decision about how long I listen and what actions I take. It is always a choice.

Feng Shui and the Inner Critic

Want to know how you can boost your self-confidence and give the Inner Critic a voice in your life? Let’s go to your bedroom and do a quick Feng Shui evaluation of your self-confidence/inner magnificence area.

As you are standing at the door of your bedroom, the area of the bottom left corner of the room represents your inner magnificence and self-confidence.

What is there? Beauty, clutter, broken stuff, or nothing at all. Is it clean and dust free? Whatever is there is telling a story about you and yourself-confidence.

Want a boost in self-confidence so you can be the coach of your team? Here are some Feng Shui actions you can take:

• Add beauty to the area. Put a picture on the wall that makes you feel happy. Put fresh flower(s) in that area or add an item that symbolizes confidence for you.
• Clear any clutter in that space. Maybe it is books, clothes, old files to be discarded.
• Remove broken items, they symbolize your self-confidence is broken.

When you learn to listen to the warnings of the inner critic from a place of your self-confidence and you implement Feng Shui adjustments you can save yourself the grief of making the same mistakes over and over again. Be the coach, it is always your choice.

Leave a comment about your Inner Critic or how you enhanced the self-confidence area of your bedroom.

Originally published at nancydadami.com on April 4, 2018.