Telling my inner critic to calm down

For as long as I can remember, I have been highly critical of myself. If I make a mistake, I tell my husband to save any criticism he has for me, because I’ve already taken care of it. I would not only beat myself up about it, but I would also hold it over my head for a while. I would be riddled with guilt and consumed with shame.

It was horrible!!!

I often had people tell me to offer myself the forgiveness that I offer others, but that just didn’t settle with me. I felt like offering any kind of grace was as if I was allowing the mistake without a consequence and that just didn’t seem right.

As I heard more messages about how offering forgiveness was to free you of your own negative emotion, I began to get curious. I started to explore the practice of offering compassion and I realized that it is exactly what I needed.

I had been holding onto shame and guilt from past mistakes, and honestly felt like I didn’t even like myself. I was mean. I didn’t allow for mistakes. Which lead to a lot of fear and perfectionistic expectations.

I remember the first time I implemented the practice of compassion, I noticed resistance. It didn’t feel right to speak kindly and softly to myself. It didn’t feel right to see how I could have made the mistake. It didn’t feel right to move on…..but it sure did feel better.

That’s when I knew that compassion was exactly what I needed to implement into my self care routine.

I make mistakes often (as does every human) but now I have a tool that helps me tell my inner critic to calm down and allows for me to learn from my mistakes rather than beat myself up.

If you are interested in more information about creating your own compassion practice, reach out, I’d love to share the resources that have helped me the most!

Living in Love,

Kristie