Health / Wellness

How To Silence The Inner-Critic And Practice Being A Good Friend To Yourself

The mind is a very busy and noisy place.

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Smiling couple having tea outdoorsEd. note: This post is by Jeena Cho, a Legal Mindfulness Strategist at Start Here HQ. She is the co-author of The Anxious Lawyer (affiliate link), a book written by lawyers for lawyers that makes mindfulness and meditation accessible and approachable. Jeena offers actionable change strategies for reducing stress anxiety while increasing productivity, joy, and satisfaction through mindfulness practices.

Part of the human condition is that we’re constantly bombarded with thoughts. Often, the thoughts are running commentaries — I enjoy this, I dislike that, why is she chewing with her mouth open? Shouldn’t you be working on your motion and not goofing off?

One surprising thing I learned when I started to practice mindfulness is this: the mind is a very busy and noisy place.

Often, the inner-critic is running the show, berating you on how awful you are and how you’re failing — constantly. These unhelpful, unproductive thoughts have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember but it wasn’t until I started practicing mindfulness on a regular basis that I stopped identifying with the thoughts.

I began to recognize that just because my mind produces a thought does that make that thought a fact. 

For example, over the weekend, I was cleaning the kitchen and I accidentally dropped a cup. I almost managed to catch it while it rolled off the edge of the counter but I couldn’t quite grab it in time. The glass hit the tile floor and shattered. Immediately, the thought that popped into my head was, What the hell? Pay attention! Why are you so clumsy? You’re always so careless.

I’m giving you the PG version of the dialogue but you can add the appropriate expletives.

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Continue reading over at Jeena’s page…

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