Overcoming Self-Criticism

Hello,

My friend.

It's Julie,

Your host of the US2 podcast.

And I have got to say,

I am so eager to have this conversation with you,

With myself.

I've been thinking about this for a long time.

And actually,

Before I even get into the topic today,

Which is really all about stopping criticism,

Stopping the criticism that we say to ourselves,

That we say to others,

I'm going to talk about it from a couple of different angles.

First I just want to say thank you.

Thank you so much for being a beloved listener,

Being part of this community,

Honestly,

For being what I feel is a brother,

A sister,

On the path of truly doing your part to be your best self,

To raise your own consciousness,

To be your US2.

I just so believe that as we do this individually,

Together,

Collectively,

You have no idea the positive impact that you're making in the world because you are shifting your energy,

Your vibration,

Your thoughts,

Your beliefs.

And what we know,

And this is going to go right into what I want to talk about,

Is that when we change the way we see the world,

The world around us changes.

When you start to dig into why you're worthy,

Why you are meant to express your gifts and your light,

Why you are such an important part of the shifts that are happening right now in our planet,

When you see that,

When you get that,

When you start really making that effort,

That time carving,

That space to make sure you're honoring yourself.

When you start to do that,

That is telling your ego,

Hey,

I'm in charge.

It's telling your higher self,

Your guides,

The divine.

It's telling this greater universal life force energy that is intelligent and all loving that you mean business in the best of ways,

That you are here.

And I know this because if you're listening,

Just by the laws of the universe,

The law of attraction,

I know,

Because I know this is how I see things.

I would love to make a bigger impact here while we're here in this one lifetime as ourselves,

Right?

To really be your most authentic,

Kind,

Loving,

Forgiving,

Gracious,

Impact,

Change maker self.

And so I just applaud you.

It means a lot to me.

It means a lot to me,

And I'm thankful to be part of your journey.

Some of you,

I know many of you've written in,

If you ever want to just connect,

Let me know what's going on,

Your favorite episode,

How you're doing,

What's happening,

What's shifting.

Tell me about your USU.

I would love to know.

You can always reach me.

You can find me at my website,

Of course,

Julieriesler.

Com,

Or on social media,

Or really a lot of these places,

Including even Insight Timer.

I have a lot of courses and meditations there.

But feel free to always reach out and know that I am here to support you,

To cheer you on.

And we do have the USU Facebook community as well.

All right,

My friends.

So I just want to talk today,

This topic of criticism for those,

For any of you who have studied A Course in Miracles,

You've probably heard me talk about my involvement with the course.

Lightly worked it before,

I had read Alan Cohen's amazing book,

A Course in Miracles Made Easy,

Which is a fantastic book.

And I will say,

And we know for us,

Those of us who've done any kind of healing work or coaching work,

That and,

Right,

Holding the space for both and.

And there's really nothing quite like doing it,

Picking up that A Course in Miracles book and starting to work through it.

And I'll share with you that for me,

Actually,

The book was very,

Very overwhelming.

And so what I started to do was to find spiritual teachers who basically share about it.

Erin Abkey,

Who I've had on here,

Is one who I adore.

Carol Howe,

Who eventually I'll have on here.

Marianne Williamson,

Who is coming out shortly on the podcast,

Who is amazing.

And finding spiritual leaders and teachers that resonate with you.

And going one day at a time,

Each day,

There's a lesson that you can listen to.

And that made it much easier,

Much more digestible for me.

So that is what I've been doing.

I have been working this course since the beginning of this year,

And it is groundbreaking.

It's life-changing.

It actually reminds me when I started getting into transformative work years ago.

That started with coaching.

I had done programs through Landmark.

I had done,

For those who know Tony Robbins,

He originally started in that kind of landmark type of personal transformation.

And then,

Of course,

Getting a master's degree in coaching and teaching.

Coaching like this work is all about shifting your perspective.

A miracle is about changing your vision,

Inner vision,

Your perception,

Your perspective.

It's like putting on a clean,

Clear pair of glasses and being able to see what's true and what's not true.

What's illusion?

What are we making up?

And what I'm learning is we make up a lot of things.

I make up a lot.

We have these egos that want to protect us and keep us safe.

And I'm not about bashing any part of you.

If you've listened to any of my interviews with Dr.

Jill Bolte-Taylor,

Who has become a very dear friend,

I love her.

She wrote the book,

Whole Brain Living.

She has the very well-known TED Talk,

A Stroke of Insight,

And the book that followed.

And she talks about our four characters.

Character two,

Which is the left brain emotional tissue in our brain,

Is very connected to the ego,

Which is really the fight,

Flight,

Fright side of us.

It's the aspect of us that can get defensive and really it's about protection.

And what I've seen,

And part of this is through Whole Brain Living,

This is through A Course in Miracles and through other transformative work,

And through observing and being curious,

Which is so much of what I teach and what I have learned through coaching,

Learning to be curious about yourself,

Is that when we have a balanced,

A harmonious mind,

Right?

When we have that clarity and we're tuning into your USU,

Your higher self,

The divine,

The divine matrix as Greg Brayden calls it,

Who's also coming back in the fall.

When we're tuning into this greater wisdom,

We are able to drop down into a deeper knowing and remembering that we're safe.

And that allows for more harmony,

Less chaos,

More clarity.

And for our character two,

For our ego to calm down,

To calm the F down.

So what I want to talk about just for a shorter solo sode with you is really about this aspect that many of us do,

Most of us do,

Which may not think much about it,

But it's really,

You know,

In The Course in Miracles,

They call it attack thoughts.

I think criticism is probably a good way to explain it.

Attack thought though,

To just share in case this is a new concept or you're not exactly,

I mean,

I'm sure you can figure it out.

But what it means is anytime we are on the defensive or offensive,

Meaning anytime you are,

Even if it's in your mind,

You're not saying it out loud,

Let's say at work,

Right?

You feel like you should have gotten the raise and you're upset with your boss and you feel like she overlooked you.

And in your mind,

You're like,

Well,

She's really not that great anyhow.

And she overlooks a lot of things and she totally should have given me the raise and I'm right.

Like that is an attack thought,

Right?

So it could look like,

You know,

You might be,

If you're focusing it inward,

It could look like,

You know,

An attack thought on yourself might look like,

You know,

You're at the gym.

This is what has happened to me.

So many times I can't even tell you,

You catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror and it's like,

Oh crap,

I don't like the way I look or I wish I should be in better shape after all these months of training.

Or I wish I looked like that person or yeah,

I just look really tired and not so full of vitality.

I can't say it that way either.

So those are all attack thoughts.

And what the course talks about is that here's the issue.

Here's the rub.

Okay.

So listen up.

These attack thoughts,

It's not just that you're saying that to yourself.

So what's happening is when you have that inner dialogue,

Your first of all,

Your mind is taking it as attack.

Your body of course follows suit,

But it also becomes a thought form that is putting out that negativity and that attack way of looking at something versus forgiveness and peace.

And so it's actually feeding the greater field,

The quantum field with attack.

So I am not going to go too deep into this,

But if you notice,

There is a lot of,

There's a lot going on in the world that looks like attacks,

Right?

Attacks on people,

Real attacks with horrible things happening with shootings and bombings and things like that.

And the idea is that what we create,

What's created in the outer world starts in the inner world.

And this is why this topic is so important to me.

And I will be talking more and more about some of what I'm learning and want to share with you because I really believe as you and I,

As we each do the inner work,

You know,

Really see our responsibility for managing our own thoughts and our inner energy.

Now not from a place of attacking yourself,

Not from a place of judging yourself.

And here is the second rub is when you start to notice,

Oh,

That's an attack thought.

Number one,

What it's doing is it is attacking you.

It's an attack on you and that energy is more extensive and powerful than you realize.

And it literally moves into the atmosphere around you,

Into the collective consciousness.

But what you want to do,

And for those of you who are coaches or have gone through coaching training,

You know,

One of the most important aspects of coaching is being in that state of curiosity,

Of taking out judgment and being in pure curiosity,

Meaning an observer,

Being aware without making it necessarily mean anything.

So what I'm going to invite you to do is to really practice noticing these attack thoughts,

The criticism,

The judgments,

Right,

The judgments.

Oftentimes those attack thoughts,

Those judgments,

We often become the right one,

Right?

Like in our minds,

It's usually,

Well,

She was wrong.

He wronged me.

I just,

You know,

They deserve that.

What's happening though is we are reemphasizing duality.

So the bigger lesson teaching is,

And I talked about this in my episode about changing the idea of woo,

The wisdom of oneness,

What we want to keep reminding ourselves because our ego is not going to want you to see this because your ego,

My ego is here to enforce separateness,

To enforce that,

You know,

You've got to be protected.

You have to have those defenses up,

Right?

Because it's all about keeping you safe.

The truth is we are all one.

We are all connected.

This is a much broader topic that I will definitely get into later on in the year about oneness and what that really means.

But we know that energetically,

Literally we're made of energy,

That the same energy,

The same creative life force that created me created you.

That's why I always say you're a brother,

You're a sister.

I really,

I legit think of you as this incredible,

You're an incredible soul spirit in a human body as am I.

So when we make these criticisms,

These judgments,

These attack thoughts,

We're adding to the field,

We're adding judgment and attack.

We're also adding it to our own energy.

Now even though the truth of who you are is in my humble opinion,

All loving,

It's all good.

It's all infinite,

Infinite,

Eternal intelligence and love and goodness and grace,

Right?

That is not something we are taught in our world.

We're indoctrined to believe that we're wrong,

That we sin,

We need to,

You know,

That we're a mistake.

We've made mistakes.

We should feel shame and guilt.

And the truth is that inherent belief that's not true often leads to the fears that leads to the attack thoughts.

So I'm just sharing today,

I hope this is helpful,

The place to start is to become aware and to start noticing when you are attacking someone else,

Yourself,

When you are judging,

You're criticizing.

And what you might do is just start with something simple like,

Oh,

I see it.

Okay,

That's great.

Terrific.

I'm seeing it.

I'm doing it.

Okay.

What else could I say?

Right?

So the first step is always going to be awareness.

Now if you've done any kind of recovery work or for those of my fellow addicts out there,

And if you've ever done any kind of programs like 12 Steps or other recovery programs,

We know the first step is always admitted,

Right?

Admitted that we can't do this by ourselves.

We've got to see it.

We've got to be aware.

I think of that powerlessness really meaning like me,

Small minded Julie,

The ego,

If left unchecked,

Forget it.

But when I bring in what I call your you is you,

My me is me,

My higher self,

Divine intelligence,

The divine mind over my small mind,

Over your small mind,

New possibilities.

So once you become aware without judgment and you notice,

You can course correct.

What you could do next is then call in your concept of the divine,

Whether you call that God or the universe or source intelligence or goddess or whatever that is,

Right?

Calling in that life force energy,

That divine matrix,

That all knowing,

Loving creator that can help you.

So we're going to start practicing tapping into divine mind,

Not our small mind.

Our small mind,

Our ego,

Little character too,

Is going to have you go into attack thoughts and criticism.

It's just what's going to happen.

The beautiful thing though is this can change.

This can shift.

And that's why I wanted to talk about,

That's why I wanted to get into this conversation today because I want to remind you of who you are,

Of your you is you,

Right?

That authentic,

That unique aspect of the divine.

While we're all of the same creator,

Each of us has very unique and special gifts that each of us are here to manifest,

To actualize.

So when you start coming up with those,

When you notice those attack thoughts,

Those judgments,

Can you just even for a second try to shift your perspective?

Remember,

My friend,

That is a miracle.

Ask the divine mind,

Ask the greater life force of intelligence,

The universe to help you to just for a glimmer of a moment,

See yourself through those eyes.

And I would love to hear what you notice because what I am seeing and feeling is it is night and day.

And let me remind you,

It's not your fault.

There's been so much programming,

So much indoctrination.

It's just what's so.

And so together,

You and I,

We can start to shift and remember who we are.

Remember our greatness.

Remember our worthiness and remember,

And this might be a stretch and I'll get more into it another time,

But in truth,

We're all innocent.

We're all created of love,

Of light,

Of beauty,

Of grace and of the creator.

So I hope this is helpful.

I also,

If you haven't picked up my free tool set,

It's a seven day tool set to design your best life.

It's very powerful.

It has some of my favorite tools and one of the tools in there is actually a tracker.

It helps you to track the things that you're saying to yourself and when it's an attack thought,

When it's not.

So make sure you pick that up.

It's very easy.

Just go to julieriesler.

Com slash tool set.

These are some of my favorite tools that I've picked up along the way,

Both being a coach for over,

Gosh,

Over 14 years and then training to be a coach and then working with almost hundreds,

Thousands of clients,

But these are my favorite tools and there is one right in there.

I think it's the first one that is going to help you with that.

So let me know your thoughts.

Please,

Whatever you do,

Just remember that you are such an important part of this shift in our consciousness,

In this ascension process,

In this greater connection to love and to accessing that and being that.

So I honor you.

I'm grateful for you and I just so love you and I'm so honored to be in your earbuds once again and I hope for today you can end the war of criticism on yourself and others and remember you are made of love and light.

From my heart to yours,

Namaste my friend.