Inner Critic, Part VII

How is working with your inner critic going? McDowell discusses in Hidden Treasure how The American Tibetan Lama, Tsultrim Allione modernized an 11th century Buddhist practice. Alice discusses how your inner critic has an insatiable appetite for negativity and encouraging a person to stay emotionally stuck. The person asks the inner critic a series of questions to reveal its needs, wants, and how it would feel if it received what it wanted. Continuing this conversation, the person feeds the inner critic what it “needs” to then feel satisfied and becomes changed. Thus, if the inner critic wants your “cooperation”, it may need to be loved (in the past the inner critic learned not being obedient meant you wouldn’t be accepted or loved), and then, feel the peace it craves if it received love.

Through this process, the hope is once the inner critic feels seen, heard, and loved, it becomes contented and a new cycle of understanding and respect between the person and inner critic develops so that the inner critic becomes an ally.

We would love to hear what you think.

To learn more about the Inner Critic, check out Alice McDowell’s Hidden Treasure.