Negative Inner Critic

Some people make fun of affirmations, but consider this, how often do you hear your “negative” or “inner” critic try to shoot you down? That’s what affirmations are for – when the negative critic says “That’s a crappy piece of work, and you’ll never be able to fix it.” Then you pull out the affirmation. “I’m an excellent writer and getting better every day.”

Do you have an image of your negative critic? Julia Cameron in her wonderful “The Artist’s Way” leads you to identifying and overcoming your negative critic, by affirmations, above, and other means. One of the best exercises I ever did was in Chapter 1 or 2, called “Blurts.” Every now and then I’ll go back and do that one again.

As for my negative critic, I can’t put the image up, because that, too, is copyrighted…it’s the black spy of Spy vs. Spy in Mad Magazine. Fortunately for me there are plenty of images of the guy holding sticks of dynamite or bombs and blowing up. I have one next to my computer.

I also have a wonderful .wav file I found years ago of the Wicked Witch of the West screaming “I’m melting!” At the press of a button I can listen to my inner critic scream as I banish her….ok, maybe I have two images – the black spy and the Wicked Witch of the West, but knowing about them and refusing to let them get to me can make all the difference in the world as to whether my day is productive or not. And, yes, it is a day-by-day battle.

Love to all,
Robin