Are You Your Worst Enemy? With Self-Criticism You might Actually Be The Harmful Enemy.
I think this is such a powerful concept – letting go of self-criticism. In society, we are not willing to discuss this stuff much and so we keep talking trash to ourselves. This can be more harmful that you may think and sometimes it may actually be subconsciously happening where you do not even notice when you are doing this harmful practice.
If you are honest with yourself, do you know that you do this? Have you thoughts about it much before and how harmful it can be in all areas of your life?
The whole point of this article and this series and so many other things I do is to help you find better ways to live your best life. Self-criticism is NOT part of living your best life. So if you do this, HOW DO YOU let go and stop doing it? Well, as with anything it is first noticing that it happens. Then exploring why it happens and maybe triggers that cause it to happen. Then obviously working to change those triggers or your response to them.
It may be that you start flipping your self-talk and build a practice of positive self-talk. I like using Loving Kindness Meditations to do this. In a Loving Kindness Meditation, you often repeat phrases like…
May I be happy.
May I be healthy.
May I be safe.
May I live with ease.
Think about how saying these statements or similar ones daily or even multiple times a day would reprogram your brain and build your self worth. It may take some time to reprogram our life long practice of self-criticism, but you just start with one small step. I know Loving Kindness Meditations always make me feel really good when I do them.
Want to learn more about Self-Criticism? Check out this overview of Self-Criticism.
Another article that might support your journey is – 7 ways to overcome toxic self-criticism.
I also wrote an article titled – SELF-COMPASSION: WHAT IS IT? HOW TO USE SELF-COMPASSION MEDITATION where I obviously talk about moving to a self-compassion practice which might be good to review.
