I was working with a client this week and we were having a fantastic conversation about releasing her negative old, fear driven stories so that she could create space for something new to grow into her life. She immediately shared the big ONE she wanted to release. (Usually people have a whole list, including myself!)
I was so curious to know what the One Big Hairy Beast of a story it was going to be. She said it was the always present, extremely cruel and heavy voice that hates her body. It was the voice that was always there putting her body down and telling her that unless she lost weight or stayed fit, people would think less of her. It had been with her all her life and she was SICK OF IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
She then continued onto share that some of her other inner critic voices about needing to work 24/7 and fear of failure had really diminished once her first child came into the world. “I told them to shut-up because my priority of being a mom was more important than working late each night.” She had successfully created space from a fear based voice that used to keep her overextended at work, however she could not shake this crusty old message that haunted her about her body.
I told her that it may be hard to believe but that this remaining negative story had nothing to do with her body. It really was the inner critic’s last chance at keeping her small so that she would not venture into the unknown of taking new risks in her life. It knew that she always would listen to that message about her weight. It was literally the GO TO, SLAM DUNK message that her fear would use to get her attention, keep her distracted and ultimately paralyzed..
As we talked about this further, she began to see that this old message about her body that used to seem SO REAL was actually a LAME and OBVIOUS attempt of her inner critic to keep her safe. I asked her what would happen if she stopped feeding that old story? Without hesitation, she described the amount of energy she would reclaim each day. When she began to imagine her spirit, her truth and creativity EXPANDING if she refused to get fooled by her fear, it suddenly became laughable that the inner critic would get her attention in the same way again.
For many of you, including me, the inner’s critic favorite way of grabbing our attention is by flinging body hatred bombs at us. However, this may not be the repetitive, harsh message that speaks to you on a daily basis. Maybe it is about failure, being lazy or not a person who follows through on their ideas. Whatever your fear message may be….TAKE NOTICE NOW….it is not going to fool you anymore….NO MORE! Your spirit has way too much good to accomplish on this planet and your inner critic is just scared of seeing what your highest self can create.
