Inner Critic
Our Inner voice/thoughts can be tearing us down or building us up. It is important to be aware of our self-talk because depending on what we tell ourselves influences the choices we make, creating the experiences we have.
Some helpful categories to notice how the inner-critic reveals itself.
The Doomsayer: Only seeing and pointing out everything that can go wrong. Has anxiety and fears from imagining and expecting the worst.
The Criticizer: Frequently judging and pointing out your flaws, mistakes and failures. Compares you to others. Assumes others judge you. It dismisses or minimizes your abilities and accomplishments. It verbally abuses you with insults telling you that you’re stupid, an idiot, your opinions or ideas don’t matter, others are more capable, smarter, and better than you, you can’t do anything right, etc.
The Victim: It tells you that you’re incapable, unworthy, hopeless, you’re not enough, etc. It gives you excuses by telling you how hard something is so you won’t make progress or achieve things, there are too many obstacles, it’s not your fault, or simply telling you that you can’t.
The Perfectionist: It pressures you to do better and no matter what you do it’s still not good enough, there’s always more you should be doing. You are not allowed to make mistakes and if setbacks happen you must immediately move on/get over it. If you might not achieve something it can stop you from taking action. It compels you to seek external validation, having certain achievements and status to get approval and acceptance from others is important. Needs to fit in to avoid judgment and rejection.
The Burnout Worker: Fears being ordinary, so it pushes you to work endlessly to be successful. It believes that if you aren’t constantly grinding you’re being lazy and that will make you a failure.
The Sabotager: Attacks your confidence and self-esteem so you won’t know your worth and believe you're an intrinsically flawed being who is unworthy of respect, love, kindness, or anything that brings joy. You consequently make choices that interfere with achieving goals and/or make yourself small or not too visible in order to avoid judgment, rejection, failure, or anything to avoid the risk of getting hurt. You conduct in mannerisms that affect your overall health such as overeating, eating unhealthy foods, or self-medicating with drugs and alcohol.
The Shamer: It keeps you confined to constantly revisiting and remembering your past to not forgive yourself for anything you did wrong or people you hurt in order to avoid repeating mistakes in the future.
The Conformist: Convinces you to repress your true self and mold yourself into standards acceptable by society, your culture, or your family with the intention of avoiding being abandoned, shamed or rejected.