Why is it so hard to simply accept yourself just as you are?
Why are you so worried about what others think of you?
Why are you comparing yourself to them… when you don’t even know them?
Why are you letting your self-criticism stop you from… living your life?
You could spend the next 3 (or 30) years analysing your thoughts, trying to figure out WHY you have these mindsets, why you think like this, who caused it and what event caused it… blah blah blah.
We are not dissing the importance of self-analysis and reflection… but we are saying your obsession with self-analysis probably sucks. Like it actually sucks the life right out you.
From at least one over-thinker (Emma) to another, sometimes you don’t need to know WHY.
Sometimes you just need to accept the situation and take action. Becuase we are guessing you’re completely 100% over your self-criticism. And really the only thing that matters is how to overcome self-criticism.
4 ways to overcome self-criticism.
Self-awareness is key.
It’s time to take notice of your thoughts. If you already think you’re too critical of yourself but you lack self-awareness it’s time to actually begin to be mindful of your thoughts and take note of what is on repeat.
This awarenesses will guide you on your next steps. Whether you take action to make a change or you keep doing what you’re doing.
Apparently, us humans have about 60,000 thoughts per day, a lot of them are horrible, mean, nasty thoughts about ourselves. And many of these nasty thoughts are the same ones over and over and over.
So begin to be an observer with no judgement. What are you telling yourself? Are these thoughts true? Do they serve you positively?
This new awareness will shine light on the situation and then you can take further action (the next 3 points is a great place to start).
Kill your obsession with ‘perfect’.
The obsession with perfect will forever leave you feeling not good enough.
You will forever have critical thoughts of yourself because you’ll never be perfect.
There are generally two reasons for this obsession… you have set too high expectations for yourself OR you focus on what others think of you (and for some reason, you think they expect you to be perfect).
Firstly, ‘perfect’ does not exist, it’s a lie. And who told you what ‘perfect’ looks like anyway? Coz my version of perfect is probably different to yours and everyone else’s. Hence why… it doesn’t exist!
News flash you are human. You will make mistakes, you will fail, you will stuff up royally at something, maybe many things.
But all those mistakes are getting you to where you’re meant to be.
You are learning. You are LIVING! It might look messy, it might feel messy… but there is magic in the mess. There is truth in the mess.
“Perfectionism is self-destructive simply because there’s no such thing as perfect. Perfection is an unattainable goal.” ― Brené Brown,
Be grateful.
Yep, it’s always going to make an appearance in every single one of our lists. Ahhh, gratitude! It just makes life better because instead of thinking about what you don’t have you think of all you do have. You change your focus and thoughts and this instantly will change your mood. You’ll feel lighter and brighter.
As soon as you notice yourself criticising yourself chuck in some gratitude for yourself. If you can’t find anything here are some examples:
- grateful for this breath
- grateful to be able to move, walk, run
- grateful for the love around me, for relationships, friendships
- grateful for water, food, shelter
You could even try switching your critical thoughts to grateful thoughts. Here are some more examples of these switches:
- I look fat, my belly is hanging over my jeans, I have a muffin top, urgh.
SWITCH to: I accept and respect myself, I am grateful for this body taking me on life’s journey. I am grateful to have the ability and the opportunity to care for my body in a healthy way.
- I am so dumb, why did I say that?
SWITCH to: I accept myself as I am. We are all different and I am grateful for other people’s perspectives, so I am grateful for my perspectives and differences.
Get out of your head and into your heart and your body.
Just like you, we have self-critical thoughts (some are useful but most are not) and this step… is our fave way to overcome self-criticism.
We get out of our heads and into our hearts and bodies with Pilates and Yoga.
The magic is in the connection of breath and movement.
When you practise you instantly become present, and ‘in’ your body. You’re more aware of your movement and there’s no space for critical thoughts. You become grateful for the way your body moves and with consistency you can take note of improvements and celebrate with love.
Also… the way we practise yoga today may only be 50-80 years old but the ancient philosophies have been around for thousands of years. And the core of it all is detachment from ego to find inner peace.
Self-criticism is your ego talking. Yoga helps us detach from ego and therefore quieten the self-criticism.
Ohhhh we could bang on this forever and this is what we do in MerryBody. We share our MerryBody Yoga and Pilates classes and we share mindset sessions. These sessions take a modern look at ancient yogic philosophies and how you can bring them into your life to make life more peaceful.
If this sounds like something you need right now find out more about MerryBody over HERE.
Always merrymaking,
Emma + Carla
