Do you ever hear the inner voices in you whenever there are things that you did and did not do? Voices within you give you unending judgment and criticism. That voice is called the inner critic.
The inner critic is also called the critical inner voice define as the subpersonality that judges and demeans a person whether or not the self-criticism is objectively justified. It is a popular psychology and psychotherapy term.
A person’s inner critic is like a nagging voice that keeps on questioning every move and every decision we make. It also weakens our progress and can leave us with negative emotions like humiliation, inadequacy, or even guilt.
Inner critic created by upsetting early events where we saw or experienced cruel attitudes being shown toward us or others who are close to us.
As we get older, we unknowingly embrace and assimilate this mentality of self-pity and other self-destructiveness. Unfortunately, the form of communication in our inner critic is demotivating and shameful, which causes anxiety.
Here are some possible means that will help us to stop listening to our inner voices.
- Awareness and identification is the first step to letting go of your inner critic. Determine what the voices are trying to tell you. Keep in mind that your inner critic does not reflect your reality.
- Answering your inner critic by being more compassionate with yourself. Evaluate yourself opposite to the way your inner critic talks to you. Acknowledge all the things that you surpass. And this time, be kind to yourself contradicting what your inner critic keeps on feeding on you.
- Keep in mind not to act on what your inner critic dictates to you. Think about who you want to be, and what you want to do, and act accordingly. Your inner critic may grow to tell you not to wait in line, not to miss your chance. But identifying, isolating, and dealing with this destructive thought process makes you stronger and your inner critic weaker.
- Lastly, remember that you are not what your inner critic tells who you are. Divorced yourself from all the destructive thoughts and go on with life being more gentle with yourself.
Our inner critic’s primary job was to keep us safe in the beginning, but as we age, negative self-talk can develop into a serious maladaptive habit with far-reaching negative effects.
However, we can significantly lessen the impact of these critical inner voices by simply identifying them, giving them names, and using the psychological techniques that will help us to get through.
You’re not alone if you harshly criticize yourself, regardless of what your inner critic was telling you and even though your inner critic tells you otherwise, it is not a failure on your part.
The world is already cruel and has millions of judgements to throw upon us, comments that did not know what we are feeling inside and what we are really going through just to survive and keep on going, criticism that is not healthy, what we need for ourself is to be our own ally – you got you.
Dina Relojo is the social media manager of Psychreg. She is a high school teacher from the Philippines.
