Re: A Promise to Myself
In Response To: Re: A Promise to Myself ()

Hi Maria!

Don't you hate that negative voice?

I just had a long talk with my 17 yo son who told me all about his negative voice. I felt so bad to hear he is struggling with it also. I imparted my wisdom of how I have dealt with it over the years but the truth is, I have that daily voice that I have to quiet down.

I read somewhere that this inner critic comes from early childhood experience but I don't really agree. I think it comes from a pre-historic time when our brains needed it to survive. Then I found this in the Huffington Post "humans were designed to be keenly aware of negative circumstances and consequences as it helped our ancestors survive." Bingo! Yes, I agree with this!

That doesn't make it easier to quiet but it helps to understand that no one did this to us. It is how we are hardwired. When my mind goes negative, I hold up my hands to my face and say stop, or picture a stop sign in front of me, or tell myself that I don't want to listen to myself right now and will deal with it later. All work to some extent. Maybe I should name that voice. Establish a relationship with it. Tell it that I am not disgustingly overweight and will never be attractive. What does that voice know about me? LOL. Arguing with myself.... I might call my voice Vader or Darth Sidious... someone on the dark side. And use The Force to keep it quiet!

Keep posting, I would love to hear what you have to say!

Katie

: Welcome back, Katie!

: I'm a newbie (4? 6? months, I don't
: remember). Doing step one. Already
: seeing signs of improvement.
: I relate to this ^ very much! To
: counteract it, I post a lot on the
: step one list. (I ignore the
: negative voice that says to stop
: bothering everyone with my stupid
: useless comments.) Participating
: in the discussions is very
: helpful. I think you have a great
: idea to do so. Looking forward to
: hearing more from you.