So many of us struggle with a harsh Inner Critic, that debilitating internal voice which has some - maybe all - of the following characteristics:
- critical, harsh, unforgiving
- judging, blaming, shaming
- fearful, self-doubting, catastrophising
- nagging, undermining, punishing
- obsessed with comparing
- perfectionistic
- degrading, abusive, gaslighting
- relentless, exhausting
- hopeless, paralysing
- and...and...
If the above sounds familiar, you’ll know how dispiriting and exhausting an active Inner Critic can be. Its constant fault-finding, criticism, judging, blaming, and shaming impact directly on our wellbeing, ease, confidence and more. For many of us, it is so entrenched it’s hard to conceive of a life in which we are free of it.
I'm offering this workshop with my friend and colleague, Sarah Durrant, because there is another way.
Sarah and I both struggled intensely with our own Inner Critics for many years before our individual explorations of Buddhism, meditation, and mindfulness led us towards the practice of self compassion. Excited, relieved, and curious to discover more, we each immersed ourselves in leading edge research and practice, alongside a wide range of wisdom and spiritual traditions, exploring different compassion-based wisdom, tools and practices across a joint experience of over eighteen years.
As a consequence, these days, we both experience our Inner Critic as quieter, softer and far less intrusive, something neither of us would have believed possible at the beginning of our journeys. As importantly, the way we relate to critical narratives when they do arise is radically different.
This experience has inspired us to create this workshop to share with others who may be suffering as we were.
We found that our Inner Critic can be a catalyst for profound healing and growth. By understanding and engaging with this voice with kind curiosity, we can begin a process of transformation that is truly life-changing, enabling us over time to foster a gentler, kinder, more generative inner dialogue and a greater sense of confidence and trust in ourselves.
In this workshop, we will be offering a weave of wisdom, tools and practices designed to help you dial down your inner critic and engage with yourself, your life and other people with greater compassion, peace, clarity, confidence, ease (and much more).
