Awfulizing

Awareness of your inner critical voice is crucial. This then enables you to see your critical thoughts for what they are: thoughts.

Being more aware of what your brain and mind do when sensing a potential threat in the form of being judged and receiving criticism will encourage the develop...

There are a number of so-called cognitive distortions that are relevant to the Inner Critic:

• Mental filters, or selective abstraction.
• Tunnel vision.
• Magnification and Minimisation or binocular trick.
• Overgeneralizations
• Jumping to conclusions
• Mi...

Instead of applying self-criticism, we need to actively practice the opposite: self-compassion. 

Self-compassion is realising that self-criticism is the enemy and then acting to reverse its negative effects. Self-compassion also helps to unlock creativity. 

The two co...

Letting go of our preoccupation with the trajectory of other people’s lives, we can transform our envy from a stagnant, blocking force into a powerful motivator for growth.

The tools and ideas above help us reframe our self-criticism; seeing critical thoughts for what they are and combating...

Imposter Syndrome is that inner voice telling you that your work is not good enough or, even worse, that you’re useless as a person.

• Self-criticism can really put (and keep) us down.
• Suffering from ‘imposter syndrome’ is common among most of us.
• Eve...

There are a number of valuable tips to help you learn to take criticism well and use it to get better at whatever you are doing:

• Breathe.
• Detach from the situation or event mentally.
• Listen actively.
• Get specific demands and relevant, constructive criticism...