you’ve never read the young adult science fiction classic A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L’Engle, I highly recommend it. In the book, the main character Meg finds that she has a subtle, yet potent superpower: she is able to Name things, and that doing so gives them identity, shape, and substance. I encourage you to channel this power toward recognizing when your Inner Critic makes an appearance, and then putting a name to it.
Make an effort to keep in mind that there’s your Inner Critic, and then there’s You. You are so much bigger and grander than your Inner Critic. The fact that you can even recognize that there are different parts of yourself at play speaks to the part of your consciousness that is a higher-level observer, who impartially views all that you do, say, and think. Profound, but true.
On a psychological level, this practice creates mental distance between You and the self-critical thoughts. Thinking about your thoughts differently keeps those Inner Critic circuits from firing, which is the key to begin changing them.
Applying the practice of naming your Inner Critic will accomplish several things. First, it increases your awareness of what feels like a threat to the self and your automatic response to it. Second, naming it creates the needed mental distance between you and your inner critical voice. Third, it opens up the space to extend compassion to the part of your psyche that feels attacked and needs comforting.
Purpose: To become more conscious of the Inner Critic’s presence
The sensations may start slowly, creeping over your awareness. You start feeling anxious, your head gets that familiar sense of pressure, and you start making snarky remarks to yourself about your behavior or global disparaging comments about who you are as a person. It’s happened so many times before, but now you see it clearly: you’re having an Inner Critic attack.
Part 1: Call It
When you realize you are beginning to feel an impending Inner
Critic attack, the best thing you can do stop it is to name it. That’s right, name it.
Say something like the following out loud (if you’re around people, you can think it in your head):
“My Inner Critic is rearing its head.”
“I’m having an Inner Critic attack right now.”
“Oh look: my Inner Critic is here.” (*waves*)
Anything that helps you realize that the overwrought internal protector is attempting to take over your thinking is useful.
Respond to noticing the appearance of your Inner Critic dispassionately, as if you are remarking upon the grass being green or the sky being blue. The goal is to begin disconnecting from emotions while noticing that inner critical thoughts are coming up.
Part 2: Give Your Inner Critic a Name
Have fun with it: give your Inner Critic an actual name and
a personality.
Give your Inner Critic a name, and when it shows up, you can be like, “Hey Bart.”
Continue having fun with this and give your Inner Critic a personality and affect as well. For example, you can imagine your Inner Critic talking with a silly voice and being overly dramatic about everything.
When you’ve made your Inner Critic less of a prominent presence in your mind, return your attention to the task at hand.
Part 3: Give Your Inner Critic a Back story
If we’re going to personalize the Inner Critic, we might as well go for it, right?
Your Inner Critic came from somewhere, aren’t you curious to know from where and why?
Envision in your mind’s eye who your Inner Critic is and what it’s all about.
Then sit down and write it out your Inner Critic’s origin story. You can use this framework to get started:
Hello, I’m your Inner Critic and my name is _______________________.
I was born in ____________________________, because __________________________________________________...
Keep adding to the story until you feel complete with it.
What did you discover about your Inner Critic that you didn’t
know before?
Learn the Guises of the Inner Critic
The rest of this book is devoted to exploring the different forms of how the Inner Critic shows up with regard to creativity. What you’ll discover is that the Inner Critic is a shape-shifter, assuming various guises to most effectively push you to avoid future threats to the self.
At keynotes and in workshops, I often lead an exercise I call an indoor “snowball fight.” In this exercise, audience members write down the answer the question “What is your biggest fear around creativity?” on a blank piece of paper and then throw their balled-up paper at each other. These “snowballs” have become the best unlikely research tool. After gathering and compiling the responses over several months, I noticed similarities, trends, and frequently verbatim responses. It is from this information that I’ve determined the forms of the Inner Critic that affect creative people the most.
Some of the forms of the Inner Critic I’ve identified are common psychology terms. For those that aren’t, I’ve created monikers for them.
Purpose: To recognize the various guises of the Inner Critic
Read through this list of the various forms of the Inner Critic and put a check by each one that strikes a chord with you.
Judgment Dread: You have a paralyzing fear of having your ideas and work be judged and criticized by others. You hold yourself and your ideas back and are loathe to put yourself out there creatively. You feel crushed by feedback and criticism. For fear of being judged, you lack self-trust.
High Self-Criticism: Little or nothing that you do creatively is right, good, or acceptable. You are overly critical of your ideas and frequent dismiss them. You’re rarely pleased with your work and consequently discount your efforts.
Deficiency Anxiety: You feel that you are somehow intrinsically lacking or inadequate at your core, and that you, your ideas, and your creations aren’t good enough.
Proficiency Anxiety: You’re afraid of not knowing enough, not being good at what you do, or not being able to keep up with acquiring new knowledge and skills.
Originality Anxiety: You believe everything you create must be new, unique, and cutting-edge, and if it is not, that it doesn’t have any merit or value.
Comparison Syndrome: You feel inadequate and therefore can’t see your unique brilliance. You experience despair from envy of others’ success, feeling like a failure in comparison.
Creativity
