Wisdom Bits Talk: Breaking Free Of Our Critical Inner Voices

Hi,

It's Stefania and welcome to Wisdom Bits,

Short talks to help you live the positive lifestyle that you so richly deserve.

Today let's talk about breaking free of our critical inner voices.

Sometimes we want deeply to move forward in our lives,

We have a plan,

But somehow things aren't working out,

It's almost like we're self-sabotaging,

We're not doing what we need to do to get things done,

Or we're doing it incorrectly and looking back we find it was a kind of a silly little mistake that we made or something that we did wrong maybe because we weren't paying attention or something,

But anyhow that could be the critical inner voice at work.

Sometimes we do have those days when nothing seems to go right and we turn on ourselves with a bucket load of self-criticism,

We just can't get it together,

All we can think about is what's wrong with us,

It's time to let that go,

How about half a dozen for starters tips to lift ourselves up and defeat that critical voice.

Tip number one,

Ask the magic why,

For every criticism ask yourself why do you believe that to be true,

Then you give yourself the first reason,

You ask yourself why this is so,

Then you continue drilling down until you run out of reasons and hopefully realize the criticism is not a valid one,

You're not a bad person and you deserve better,

If for some reason the criticism is a bit valid then we start another chain as to how we can alleviate that situation,

What we can do to progress,

To move on or move through whatever needs to be done,

You're still not a bad person even if the criticism is valid,

We'll just work through it and cure it.

Number two,

Journal,

Write down your self-criticism and then immediately flip it to a positive life affirming version of that critique,

For example,

My hair is a mess,

Flip it,

My hair is a really lovely color,

That even if you don't believe it,

Even if you have to pretend like you're somebody else,

What would my mom say,

Whatever it takes to flip that criticism into a positive stance and you could say what would so-and-so say but eventually you want to work it back to what would you say to make that criticism flipped into a positive self-affirming belief.

Number three,

Movement,

Sometimes it's easy to just sit and wallow or stew in our misery or downer mood,

Movement,

Believe it or not,

This is true,

Movement can often stimulate our hormones to bring positive endorphins that make us feel better,

So just stop and try going outside for a walk and getting a bit of sun or a bracing walk in the wind or if the weather's not right,

Don't let that stop you,

Try doing some kind of exercise that takes a bit of effort and realigns our focus like strength training or aerobics,

Pop on a YouTube vid,

There are some that are even five minutes,

Just the object is to get out of that chair,

Get off that sofa,

Get out of that thought cycle and move,

It's all about getting out of the cycle of our heads and doing something else,

Changing the direction and patterns of our thoughts.

Number four,

This might not be for everyone,

You might not consider yourself an artistic person but give it a go,

Get your crayons out or be it digital or actual equipment,

Artwork,

Drawing and coloring is great for lifting our moods because you get into the picture that you're coloring,

It almost becomes like a moving meditation,

That's what I've found because I think of nothing else when I'm working on a digital drawing.

If I've been feeling depressed,

Woe is me,

I start coloring,

I start thinking bit by bit,

Well do this color this,

This color this,

You get into it,

It becomes therapeutic.

You can even start out doing it in a therapeutic way by drawing out how you were feeling about an issue or you can draw to go on a journey of exploration and fun,

Just something crazy and abstract and fun or there's lots of adult coloring books,

They come in both digital and physical book formats,

You can try one of those,

Those are kind of fun to work with,

Just pull it out whenever you feel the need.

Drawing can be very calming,

Relaxing our minds and it can also help raise our energy and opening us up to new possibilities through using and exploring our creative spirit.

You can often find that you get into working on a drawing,

You're thinking about your colors,

Your patterns and so on and all of a sudden an idea comes about that base issue that you were working on because you had changed your focus,

Your mind was now free.

So this coloring can do a bit more than just making pretty pictures,

It can really be helpful.

Another way to raise our energy and defeat criticism,

Get out amongst friends and people.

Sometimes loneliness brings out our self-critical,

Unhappy side.

We have no one to speak to,

No one to speak with,

So we speak to ourselves and it's sometimes not in such a kind way.

Call a friend or suggest getting together for coffee or doing something or you don't have a friend to call,

Don't let that stop you.

There's lots of social groups you can join,

Meetups and stuff or you can go out by yourself,

Go out on your own where people or stimulating events are like museum,

Going to a market,

Those are always fun if that's your thing because there's always different sellers,

Colors,

People or just go somewhere you've never been before.

There are lots of things that you can do by yourself just to get out of the house and out of that down critical mood.

Getting out is like opening a door or window to your mind and spirit,

You're stimulating yourself with new ideas,

Solutions and perhaps seeing how others do things.

You're opening our horizons and realizing we're not alone,

There are so many different people in the out wider world and then there's you,

This can lift your energy too as you realize that you're an individual.

At the same time,

A valuable part of humankind and good enough as you are.

And our last one is,

Sometimes this one can be a bit difficult,

Mirror work,

Daily mirror work combined with positive affirmations to raise your energy.

We have to look in the mirror anyhow,

Brush our teeth and groom ourselves so let's take this time to see the good in ourselves and fire up our energy for the new day in the morning or send ourselves into a peaceful healing sleep at night.

Now as we close out,

How about some affirmations?

If some of these you can relate to,

Maybe you can journal on them or you can put them on a card and put it in your wallet or around the house just to remind yourselves how wonderful and valuable you are.

I am lucky.

I am blessed.

I am grateful for this new day.

I can handle all the challenges that will come my way today.

I am loved.

I am good enough.

I am useful to myself and others.

I am happy to be me.

Those are some of the affirmations that you might want to use or adapt them as you will.

You might want to use them when you get up in the morning,

Then at night time.

Try it again.

I did my best today.

All is well.

I am loved.

I am happy to be me.

I really am good enough.

I'll have a good night's sleep tonight.

These things are always working out for me.

It really is a constant journey to keep our energy high and positive and defeat this self-criticism which can sometimes come out of nowhere.

But if we are just gentle with ourselves,

Patient and persistent,

We can overcome.

We can bounce back from the down moves and keep moving forward.

And that's it for this wisdom bit.

If there's any parts of it that were helpful to you,

Journal on them or put them in your diary so when you do feel a little bit down,

You can go back to it and read it and lift yourself up again,

Where you belong,

Living that positive lifestyle that you deserve.

Bye for now,

Many blessings to you.