Self-Criticism: Why Do We Do It and How Can We Stop?
by Self-criticism is perhaps one of the worst forms of criticism there is. Who else is better at telling you how, fat, and ugly, stupid or incapable you are?
Self criticism is something that lowers our self esteem in order to confirm inherent beliefs that we hold deep within our subconscious minds. So how does it work? And how easy is it to change our thoughts patterns so that we can hold positive and encouraging dialogue with ourselves and ultimately change our beliefs to positive and encouraging ones? This article aims to answer these questions.
What is Self-Criticism and How Does it Work?
Self criticism is the negative internal dialogue that you direct to yourself within your mind. It is the role and responsibility of our subconscious to constantly communicate with our conscious thought patterns in order to determine our behavior, feelings, emotions and ultimately to build and maintain our personal belief system. Our personal belief system are the boundaries and laws that we self create in order to make personalized decisions. If we hold negative beliefs then we usually have negative thought patterns to maintain and support these beliefs. These negative beliefs can also be termed limiting beliefs and are limiting because they are the ultimate judge of how we see things (our perception) and how we judge our personal limits and expectations. The more we reference ourselves to these beliefs the stronger our internal dialogue and thought patterns become to support this belief. Think of it like walking a path through the bush, the more you walk it, the more the path is cleared and the easier it becomes to take.
It is therefore safe to say that you attract what you believe. If you believe in something, your mind will search out information to support you. This is done by your sub-conscious asking the conscious mind to turn its focus towards all things that will help support your belief system. What this all means is that your mind will begin to perceive and interpret the information around you in a way that supports the beliefs you hold. The more you think about it, the more you believe it and the more your mind actively goes out to prove it. Here is an example, you believe you are fat and ugly and are unworthy of love. You don’t think much about this belief but you do catch yourself in the mirror or when eating dinner telling yourself that you are fat and should eat less or else no-one will love you. This feeds your belief, your mind agrees with you and inevitably your self esteem is lowered.
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