13/01/2025
www.TSHypnotherapy.com
Our inner voice is often labelled as a villain! - IT'S NOT!
The "inner critic", the automatic, self-doubting, self-sabotaging inner choir master; raising a chorus of intrusive, negative thoughts to ruin any plans and ideas you have.
There's loads of advice out there about shutting out or silencing the inner critic, even more about turning the negatives to positives. While some of these might work in the short term they are potentially causing you to skip over one issue only to create another further down the line.
Your inner voice is the voice of your experiences, it's the voice of the things you've learned to cope with, and those you haven't yet. It is the frightened child that wants to stay safe by avoiding the risky thing your thoughts seem to suggest. Your mind is strategically ten steps ahead, even if it might be five steps behind emotionally. It knows that in order to start this new project, or confront that difficult client, or pitch for that raise, you're going to have to do a whole bunch of things that bring you discomfort. It wants to protect you from that, so it wants to make you avoid that course of action.
So, sure you can silence it, ignore it, force it; but think, if you did that to a real kid you're pushing the boundaries of neglectful/abusive behaviour. You're not going to help that kid grow and develop or feel any better about themselves.
Now remember, that kid's you! Help yourself, by acknowledging what is going on, thank your mind for looking out for you, promise it you'll do everything you can to keep it safe. Ask it for it's realistic concerns, use your experience to weigh their merits and take appropriate action. In this way your inner voice can become a really strong ally in terms of emotional intelligence. Tackling difficult tasks in this way can lead to you creating a much safer working environment for your co-workers and team members.
Photo Credit: Pasqualino Capobianco on Unsplash