We had to listen to critical parents as kids, living in dysfunctional households every day of our development.

We were taught we better listen or we're going to face punishment, harshness.

Maybe someone would leave and abandon us or go away.

We learned we better listen or we would be deemed disrespectful.

We might endure some kind of wrath, whether that was physically laborous or lonely or

embarrassing. Basically, we were shamed into taking in critical messaging as if it were wisdom when it

wasn't. So if we digest, ingest, internalize, incorporate a critical voice because we grow up with an external critical voice

and it becomes our own programming. What happens is our very own value system of loving another

person or ourselves is to listen. That may be the nuanced pattern we picked up as children.

That it's smart. It's survival to listen to that critical voice.

Hello, welcome to the show. This is Emotional Badass, where Moxie meets Mindful. I'm your host,

Nikki Eisenhower, life coach and psychotherapist. And on today's episode, we're discussing how

highly sensitive people can find freedom from the critical voice.

So if you're highly sensitive, chances are you don't just have an inner critic. You have a running critical commentary constantly.

Understanding our psychology can be tricky because what is logical is not necessarily psychological

logically you'd hear me talk about the critical voice once or twice understand the concept of self-talk

and never again be so harsh and self-critical that you become an active participant in hurting yourself

and strung together present moments.

You'd never do that again if this was a dynamic successfully handled by logic.

Logically, on the surface, the critical voice just beats us down. Knowing this doesn't change it.

The critical voice doesn't just say, you messed up or watch out, don't trip up,

or, hey, learn better for next time. That's far too constructive for the critical voice. What I'm talking

...