How To Manage Your Inner Critic Stress Levels
It’s very odd how many of us fail to listen to that tiny voice inside ourselves, perhaps because of fear of what it might say to us. The inner critic challenges and undermines our self-confidence in our decision making process with life issues and this affects how you manage stress. As a matter of fact, the inner critic is one of the most devious sources of stress known to mankind.
Yet, this voice can be the all-commanding mentor giving you loads of positive words to fill your mind with positive thoughts. The pessimistic inner critic takes over when facing challenges where you might need extra courage or strength. This is when that inner voice tries to convince you of all the reasons why you wouldn’t be able to do it.
Don’t believe the lies your inner voice tries to tell you.
Your Inner Critic Affects Your Decision Making Process
Your inner critic was also given to you to keep you safe and help you see danger signs, but when it’s counter productive to your decision making process and hence, your growth as an individual, new measures must be taken. As reported in this article, Harvard Business Review on How To Manage Your Inner Critic, even people with much success report difficulty with managing the stress of their inner critic. Exploring how to manage stress effectively takes on many forms, but it’s something that affects us all.
Much of this boils down to your inner belief systems. As you’ve read here on Laughs Heal, we’ve covered and will continue to cover ways to change your belief systems. In Positive Affirmations Won’t Work For You Unless…, you discovered the difference between positive affirmations that work and those that don’t. You also have a case study with How To Manage Stress To Gain Success: A Formula with 10 Benefits.
These are helpful in understanding and having a plan of action to change your belief systems, along with many other articles in our archives. But the inner critic is a not so obvious source of stress in defeating the success of your inner belief systems.
So continuing to examine ways to improve your inner belief systems, we must address your inner critic. You inner critic is not only a huge source of stress, but it also makes discovering how to manage stress effectively, more important. Thank goodness there are solutions!
Here Are 3 Basic Solutions for Silencing Your Inner Critic:
The 3 R’s
1. Recognize Your Inner Critic
Use The 3 R’s
To Silence Your
Inner Critic:
Recognize
Release
Reconsctruct
When you recognize which voice is your inner critic from the good judgement which keeps you from dangerous situations, you will have accomplished a huge step! Once you know the difference, you can see where your inner critic might just be fear of stepping out of your comfort zone to accomplish new goals. However, you know that your inner critic cannot keep you from accomplishing new goals, unless you allow it to.
Once you complete this step, you have the power back in your hands. You can change your decision making process to include activities which help you to step out of your comfort zone and overcome that voice that tries to tell you that you can’t.
2. Release Your Inner Critic
Having recognized that the voice was only your inner critic, it is easier to face it head on and then release it from your consciousness. It’s amazing how many people are not even aware of the fact that they have an inner critic and this only makes that source of stress stronger. Ignoring the inner voice has never resolved the negative, pessimistic results it produces.
By recognizing and releasing it, you acknowledge that it was there, but you let it go. Once you do that, you are ready to take action in the opposite direction of what your inner voice was telling you.
3. Reconstruct Your Inner Voice To Relay Self-Confidence
Steps #1 and #2 give you clarity and clean out the dust of the old thought patterns which were not doing you any good. Step #3 reinforces the bonus benefits you get from the first 2 steps by creating new habits of thought patterns. It’s just as easy to say something nice to yourself as it is to let the inner critic have its way, so by reclaiming your power over your thoughts, it gets easier to choose the thoughts you really want to keep about yourself.
No one can define you like you can! Choose to define yourself with positive words and you will see positive results.
You Can Win Over Your Inner Critic and Manage Stress Effectively!
These are well tested methods for creating new inner belief systems and have been used in many different philosophies throughout time. When your decision making process is hampered by your inner critic, you can look at it just as a simple way of your inner voice telling you that you’re ready for a change.
You can change the habits of your inner voice! You can discover how to go through the decision making process without any negativity or undue pessimism. Surely positive self-talk will go a long way in helping you to change these patterns and solidify your choice to conquer your inner critic.
Laughter therapy will also help you to keep a light hearted approach towards this change. Learning how to manage stress means looking at all of the sources of stress in your daily life and your inner critic is one source of stress which can be defeated.
Let your next decision making process be that of choosing to take action to get rid of your inner critic. It will help you to lead a much more balanced and satisfying lifestyle.
Here’s to your inner self-confidence success!
Which areas of dealing with your inner self critic and belief systems have been the most challenging for you? Comment on it and we can come up with some helpful tools for you!
Do you know of someone whose inner critic needs an exit pass? Please remember to share this with them, thanks!
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