How to Silence your Inner Critic

This past week I heard (or read, I can’t remember) the phrase: “Get out of your head and into your body.” It was in reference to creative work.

This inspired a light bulb moment. I know that once I start my creative work, and I’ve been at it for a few minutes, my relentless inner critic shuts up. Any physical activity has this effect, even the simple act of typing. My brain has no choice but to focus on the physical, and the inner critic has to go away for awhile.

I’m waiting to hear back about jobs, once again. This is always a hard time for me mentally. My instinct is to sit around, not do much of anything outside of watch TV, and overthink every insignificant detail of my interview(s).

This time, I’ve been forcing myself to do things that require some physical movement. Writing, drawing, cleaning, etc. It’s hard. I still really want to sit around and let my inner critic have a field day. But I feel so much better. The few hours of the day I can manage to silence the negative, judgmental thoughts are a great relief.