Dealing With The Inner Critic

[jjer94]

Hey guys.

I've been on a creative hiatus for several months now mostly because of this one issue: the inner critic. It's tormenting me and sabotaging my creative efforts, telling me that my work sucks before I even finish it, telling me it'll never be perfect so why even bother. It's totally sapped the joy from the process and has made me doubt whether I should even continue.

In dealing with it, here's what I've tried so far:

• Journaling. I take a statement it says, such as "your work sucks," and analyze the heck out of it. I realize that the statement is totally bogus and based on unrealistic and arbitrary standards. But the critic remains unphased.
• Bioenergetics. I take the anger from the critic and try releasing it through bioenergetic exercises. But the critic remains unphased.
• Subpersonalities. I have a dialogue with the critic. The romantic part of me tries to negotiate with the critic, telling it to back off in the creative process and come back after the fact. But the critic doesn't listen.
• Self-love/mindfulness, a la Matt Kahn. Telling the critic it's okay to feel that way. Loving the critic. Welcoming it in. Feeling the feelings. But that doesn't change the fact that it believes my work sucks, and what ends up happening is that I believe it and don't continue with the creative session. I think that's a hint.
• Visualizations. I've done visualizations using symbols, light, etc. It feels nice, but the critic remains unphased.
• Yoga. Two months of daily yoga, huge visceral improvements, but the critic remains unphased.

Perhaps this is something much much deeper. Perhaps it's a self-esteem issue - that no matter what I do, I'm not good enough; that no matter how much I try, I won't ever be able to satisfy the inner critic. That part of me still believes the inner critic. Anyway, I just feel a bit confused and hopeless because I've tried so much and nothing's working, which is why I come here. Besides any of the techniques I listed (and psychedelics), how have you guys dealt with your own inner critic? Feel free to share anything that's helped you.

Edited December 23, 2017 by jjer94

[aurum]

@jjer94

In the book The Artist Way by Julia Cameron, she advocates for something called The Morning Pages. This is where every morning you just write non-stop for 3 pages whatever comes to mind.

It's like a form of meditation. You're clearing out all that subconscious negative energy and allowing creative energy to come through.

I've never done them, but I know people swear by that book and that exercise in particular.

Other books you might want to check out are The War of Art  /  Do The Work by Steven Pressfield and Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert.

I'd also look at your diet as well. Sometimes a lot of those negative thoughts are physical more than anything else.

[JustinS]

For me one of the best things that I have done for my inner critic is going to a 10 day meditation retreat every 6 months or so. It feels like a surgery done into my psyche. Long periods of directed awareness alone seems to really tune-up these nook and crannies. 

[AleksM]

@jjer94

Notice how the inner critic arises from nothing. It is not always there.

After the critic appears, tell him to shut up.   Use your authentic voice. It Works for me.

[Faceless]

See that the inner critic is nothing more than a series of self imposed images in contradiction with one another. Images that have been handed down through personal experiences be it the family, education, and other social situations. Also this conditioning is fueled by social institutions or conventions, that attempt to apoint a role on an individual. An attempt to designate an identify one by his role or her in society. Problem is some people resist this designation for the perfectly sane reason that they don’t really know who or what they are or what they want. 

This inner critic is a conflict of contradictory outward and innward impositions. Thoughts, ideas, and notions that do not agree with another. These are attributes of thought “the thinker”. And in the fragmented nature of thought division cultivates contradiction, contradiction produces conflict, and conflict breeds suffering. The inner critic is the mechanical fragmentation of thought in constant battle with its self.

This war is given continuity by thought. So inquire into thought which is you. 

?

[Joseph Maynor]

Every block can be analyzed to look for its source.  You need to identify each block and then contemplate the source. Either you are acting inauthentically or you have a negative association with the value you are trying to pursue.  You gotta do deep self-therapy to find the root causes of your blocks.  

Edited December 26, 2017 by Joseph Maynor