Silencing the inner critic

If you're anything like me, your loudest critic comes from within. It may be your heart, conscience, or just good ol' common sense. Most of the time, it's your head. Whatever part of your head. It sometimes painfully screams "have you not learned anything over the years?!" or quietly whispers nothing, leading you to heave a sigh, as if to concede "you're right. What was I thinking?!"

Well, over the past couple of months, I've learned that my inner critic has yet to bombard me with its other voices, warnings, condescensions, and all expressions otherwise. It can say so much, yet also say so little. Most of all, I've learned that the most deafening order it can tell me is this: don't silence me.

Oh sometimes I do wish it has an off button. Oh how things would be much simpler.

But oh, how boring would that be.

I guess it's difficult to silence the inner critic because we expect so much from ourselves. And it's a lot easier to shut off other people's voices in our heads because they don't know the kind of expectation that you set for yourself. Despite your own denial that "you don't know yourself," you know a lot more than you're willing to admit (now, why is that?). And thus, the inner critic persists.

In a sense, I am grateful that I have an inner critic that never shuts off. It's a comforting reminder that I have a sense of self that I can truly understand.