Many of us can relate to feeling as though we’re living with an inner critic that is constantly assessing and criticizing everything we do, think and feel, from our important life choices to mundane everyday decisions, from our mistakes and wrongdoings to our usual slip-ups and bad habits. We see everything around us with a negatively biased outlook, and our pessimistic, defeated attitude permeates every aspect of our lives, from our relationship conflicts to our mental health challenges.
Giving Voice to Our Pain
For those of us struggling with addiction, our inner critic can take the issues we’re dealing with in our lives and create constant material to criticize ourselves for, beat ourselves up about, obsess over and judge ourselves for. We berate ourselves and speak in self-deprecating ways. Our self-perception and self-image are based on energies of self-hatred and rejection. We struggle with a low sense of self-worth, pervasive insecurities, and fears of inadequacy, inferiority and abandonment. Our inner critic is giving voice to all of our unhealed pain, and it can be an incessant narrative of our shortcomings, our failures, and perceived evidence of our unworthiness. We feel haunted by our inner demons, and we use our drugs of choice to try and escape them.
Childhood Programming
The voice of our inner critic often arises out of the programming of our formative childhood years, and our caretakers have a huge role in how this voice is formed. How they speak to us, how they treat us, how they interact with us, and how they relate to themselves can all inform how we then think and speak about ourselves. If we are abused, neglected, harmed, mistreated or disrespected, especially in our younger years when our mental and emotional processing systems are forming, we can develop an inner critic that is relentless and unkind. We don’t know how to separate ourselves from this voice, and we listen to it, we believe it, and we identify with it. We still have yet to learn, through self-reflection and mindfulness, that we are not our thoughts, and out thinking minds don’t define us.
Choosing Spirit Instead
If we are consistently treated with love and support as we’re growing up, we often will be able to develop the internal resources to disagree with our inner critic, to recognize the lies it tells us, and to reject it altogether in favor of the voice of our spirit, our innate wisdom pointing us toward unconditional self-love and empowerment.
The Guest House is a welcoming and supportive recovery home where you will be met with open arms, wherever you are on your journey, without judgment or expectation.
Call 855-483-7800 today for more information.
theguesthouseocala.com
3230 Northeast 55th Avenue Silver Springs, FL 34488