Are you listening too much to your inner critic?

“For as he thinks in his heart, so is he…” Proverbs 23:7

Our thoughts flit by so quickly, we may not notice how influential they are. We all have thoughts that flit into our heads, and we suddenly wonder where that idea came from. We can accept or reject thoughts. It’s in the rejecting or accepting of thoughts that we take charge of them through watchfulness. One kind of negative thought pattern that afflicts many of us is the inner critic.

 I confessed a negative thought recently and my priest said to simply reject that thought. I responded, yes, but I have to figure it out first. I thought I had to have an answer or an understanding of why I had the bad thought about myself. Maybe I wanted to fight the inner critic with a good answer! The priest said no, just reject it, there is nothing to figure out.

After feeling briefly stunned, I felt free. Just because the inner critic pummeled me with something negative about myself does not mean I’m obliged to dwell on it and ruminate about it. I don’t have to fix that thought, I can just choose other thoughts.

These thoughts are not about sins we need to correct, they are self-debasing thoughts that simply pull us down. The inner critic is not helpful, he’s there to tell us we’re never good enough no matter how much we achieve. The inner critic expresses pride that comes across like a negative humility -but it’s not humble at all.

Are you tired of thinking you aren’t good enough at basketball? Well, stop listening to your inner critic. You can never please that guy anyway. Either practice more so you can improve, accept your imitations in basketball but do your best, or pick up a different sport. Don’t badmouth yourself. You are a child of God!

Replace negative thoughts with healthy thoughts. Say the Jesus prayer, think about things you are grateful for, choose good thoughts and you will change the course of your mindset and your life.

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The inner critic is one of many topics geared for young men in our new book Forged which is available for purchase now at www.woveninhislove.org.