Monday, December 5, 2011

Your Inner Critic is a Drunk

My yoga teacher is kind of a genius.

This morning in class, as we were moving into Ardha Chandrasana (Half Moon Pose), she said to us, "Treat your Inner Critic like a drunk friend at a party.  Let them babble whatever nonsense they're going to babble, but put them in the backseat and tell them firmly that you're the one driving the car."

See what I mean about genius?

What I love about this way of approaching our Inner Critic is that it acknowledges the Inner Critic's existence without giving over our power.  I think it is really hard to completely silence your Inner Critic.  In fact, I think it is nearly impossible.  But if we can look at them like the drunk friend we've all helped get home from a party, we can see how powerless they are.  

So today as I sit down to write, I'm going to hand my Inner Critic a bag so he doesn't make a mess of my car, and let him spew nonsense while I work.

What are some of the ways you deal with your Inner Critic?  I'd love to hear about them!

*****

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5 comments:

  1. I got nothing on squelching that damn critic. Just wanted to say that the title of this post is brilliantly hilarious. :)

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  2. Absolutely loved this! I will now steal that phrase and use it as needed.

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  3. Yoga teachers are so smart! Inner critics...not so much. My yoga teacher says talk to yourself the way you would talk to a friend. We wouldn't have many friends if we let that silly slush do all the talking :-)

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  4. I do like the way your teacher thinks. When my darkness starts talking too loud I politely thank it for the input then ask it to submit the suggestions and comments to the committee.

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  5. I always liked R.K. Narayan's remark: "Writing is a yoga." Just recently I was reading Iyengar's 'Light on Life.' He makes a comment on the relationship about asana: 'If you learn a lot of little things, you may end up knowing a big thing.' It struck me how much it's like writing a novel. You just have to keep writing those individual words, and pretty soon it's a whole book.

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