Befriending Your Inner Critic

Have you ever messed up? Really messed up? A mistake that you can't stop thinking about over and over again?

What if I were to tell you that there was a way that you could befriend your inner critic? Allow me to share with you a simple activity that you can start doing right here, right now so whenever there's a tragedy you can turn it into triumph. This concept is called reframing and reframing is an amazing opportunity for us to take the negative and use it in a productive way into something positive.

Suppose that you really, really messed up in a meeting (you said something you shouldn't have). Now you can do one of two things: either wallow in self-pity and just keep replaying that negative situation all over again or you can ask yourself “What did I learn from this? What is something that I can improve on next time?” Maybe the situation exposed cracks in your knowledge and this blunder can be the first step to fill in those gaps later on. You're just taking that same situation and reframing it into something that's more productive because at the end of the day, if you aren't your own cheerleader, then who will?

Our Prophet (SAWS) mentioned an interesting reality called Qareen (everyone is born with a companion Jinn) and the whole point of this jinnis to guide us off the track to make our lives problematic. Can we completely erase the effects of our inner critic or our companion Jinn? Probably not.

But, are there ways that you and I can minimize the negative effects? Absolutely

Are you friends with your inner-critic?