How loud is your internal critic today?

We all have days when our internal dialogue gets us down. We may have objective stressors – missed deadlines, personal problems and so on – or we may be fearful or worried about imaginary or unknown threats and suffer from a general sense of anxiety or unease.

Underlying it all is an internal voice, one that sometimes seems hell-bent on convincing you you’re worthless, incapable, inadequate or otherwise flawed.

But the trouble, is your thoughts aren’t real. They’re not an objective reflection of reality.

It isn’t your thoughts that are real, it’s your awareness of your thoughts.

If you have the capacity to reflect on that internal voice and internally say to yourself that it isn’t an accurate reflection of who you are, then surely there is a side of you that isn’t worthless, incapable, inadequate, flawed or whatever else your internal critic is trying to convince you of.

In this time of pandemic and lockdown, it’s easy to give that internal critic a platform and for their volume to increase. For reasons out of your control you may be unable to progress in your thesis as quickly as you want or need to, or you may be suffering from the lack of social contact. If you’re not careful, that’s fuel for the self-critical fire.

But next time you hear that inner critic, tell yourself that these are just your thoughts and they aren’t real. What’s real is careful, mindful awareness of the way your mind is playing tricks on you and the way that internal critic is stealing the spotlight.

The more you do it, the quieter that voice will get.

Good luck!