Hi, everybody and welcome to the show. If you can relate to having an inner critic or an

inner judge voice in your head that's very hard on you, this episode is for you. So my guess is

you understand your inner critic. You know it's there for a purpose.

For most of us, our inner critics were developed way back in childhood as a way to protect us.

Yes, that's right.

They are protective parts.

And you may think, well, gosh, why would this part of me that makes my life harder that tells me I'm worthless

or not enough or bad or wrong in some way? How could this be a protective part? Well, at a young

age, we decided if we're harder on ourselves than anyone else's, it's protective. Or if we're

hard on ourselves, it motivates us. Or if we're hard on ourselves, we'll do things so

perfectly. We'll avoid rejection or judgment or abandonment or anything else we fear. And then as we get

older and we do personal development work, as everybody listening does, we realize, wow,

this inner critic is so loud. It's so pervasive, and it's really hard to get

rid of. And we know it. We know it's not our voice, but it just doesn't seem to go away.

And we get stuck in what I call a bit of an awareness trap. You know the inner critic is there.

You know it has better intentions, but you just can't stop beating yourself up. And then you beat

yourself up for beating yourself up because you know nothing heals in judgment. And that inner

critic just seems to be so pervasive and so hard to quote unquote get rid of or quiet.

So here's the truth. And this may be news to you or

it may be a reminder. Inside alone doesn't heal a pattern. Inside alone, awareness about why the

inner critic is there or what its function is. It helps us to understand it. But as you've probably experienced, it doesn't make it go away because your inner critic

is not a mindset issue.

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