I'm Kate James and this is the quieten your inner critic meditation.
Quickly close your eyes now and bring your awareness into your body.
Become aware of the body resting right here.
Feeling your feet on the ground,
Your legs and your back against the chair.
And becoming aware of the movement of the body as you breathe.
And allowing the breath to bring you into a state of calm.
Begin to notice now how your body feels today.
Gently scanning across the body and becoming aware of any places where there's tightness or tension.
And imagining you can take the breath to those places.
Gently breathe that tension out.
Now bringing the awareness to the forehead area and gently softening across your brow.
Widening the space between the eyebrows.
And relaxing all of the tiny muscles around the eyes now.
And bringing this feeling of softness into the jaw area and all the way around to the lips and tongue.
So that all of your face now feels completely relaxed.
And letting your shoulders drop away from your ears.
Feeling a softness across the upper back.
And letting that softness flow down into the upper arms,
The forearms,
Down into the hands and the fingers so that your arms begin to feel heavy now.
And then coming back up to the chest,
Notice if there's tightness anywhere in the chest area.
And opening up some space around your heart.
And breathing softness into the belly now.
Bringing this feeling of softness flow into the hips and the thighs,
The calves and the feet.
So that your whole body feels completely relaxed now.
As we create this quiet in the body,
We also create more stillness in the mind.
And with this sense of inner quiet,
I'd like you to make contact with the voice that you call your inner critic.
Your inner critic's intention is good.
It wants to protect you from danger and keep you safe in the world.
But sometimes this voice becomes overly vigilant.
And it prevents you from seeing what's good about yourself.
It stops you from celebrating your achievements,
It compares you unfavorably to others and it moves you away from connection with yourself and with the people you love.
We can balance the voice of the inner critic by getting to know our inner supporter or nurturer.
Become aware of just one small criticism your critic makes.
If you find it difficult to choose one thing,
Begin with the simple judgement of not feeling good enough.
And I want you to be aware now of where you then feel the emotion of that experience in your body.
Moving the attention into the torso area,
Which is where we generally feel our emotions.
And see if you can locate the discomfort or pain that accompanies that judgement.
If you find the sensation too strong to focus on,
You can gently move your attention away to a part of the body that's neutral,
Such as your feet or your knees.
But if you can be with this sensation,
See if you can breathe a little space around it.
Opening up some space to allow the emotion to be there.
And as you do this,
See if you can make contact with the part of you that you'd call your inner supporter or your nurturer.
You might imagine you can picture this part of you standing in front of you.
And extending compassion for any of your suffering.
Offering you unconditional love and support.
And soothing the emotions that accompany the critical thoughts that you've become aware of.
You might like to move one or both hands to the heart area now.
Just feel the warmth of this gentle embrace.
As you offer yourself these words of support.
I see your goodness.
I acknowledge your humanness.
And I love and accept you exactly as you are.
I see your goodness.
I acknowledge your humanness.
And I love and accept you exactly as you are.
Moving into your heart area now and making a commitment to be more accepting of yourself.
Imagine now that as you go through your days when you notice the voice of the inner critic,
You can be more aware of those habitual thoughts and make contact with your inner supporter to create a little more balance in your thinking.
As we prepare to come out of the meditation,
Bring your awareness back into the room.
Once again feel your feet on the floor.
And begin to bring some small movement into your fingers and toes.
And in your own time gently opening your eyes.
And in your own time gently opening your eyes.
