MASTER YOUR INNER CRITIC
Get curious! Consider that the biggest problem with those pesky critical thoughts are not the thoughts themselves, but your reaction to them. A good first step in the process of mastering your inner critic is to learn to take control of your reaction. If you're putting on a pair of pants, only to discover they don't fit quite right, and your inner critic says... "Ugh! I MUST lose some weight!" or, "These pants look awful on me!" ...the automatic reaction is to feel badly about yourself. And, often times the negative thoughts, along with the bad feelings, continue to spiral downward. Not a fun experience.
Try reacting with curiosity. When you hear your inner critic make judgments, instead of feeling bad about it, just notice that you're having those thoughts, and get curious. Rather than agreeing with those negative thoughts, which leads to feeling bad, say to yourself, "Hhmm, I'm having some thoughts that don't feel good. Isn’t that interesting? I wonder what that's about?"
With much love,
Niki Svara