7 Steps on How to Silence Your INNER CRITIC Especially When it Gets TOO LOUD and Becomes Overwhelming

This is the iHeart podcast. Guaranteed. Human people are always quick to offer wellness advice, and honestly, some of it can be weird, trendy cleanses and fad diets. But here's some wellness advice you can depend on. Whole Foods Market Whole foods have a variety of protein options, along with ready to eat salad kits and ready to heat rice and bean blends from their 365 brand, making eating healthy, easy and delicious. And their vitamins and supplements help you be the healthiest version of yourself. Shop all things wellness at Whole Foods Market. Did you know our bodies talk to us. Those weird pains are the body's way of saying, excuse me, I need some help here. Amazon One Medical has 247 virtual care so you can get help quickly and easily. Thanks to Amazon One Medical, Healthcare just got less painful the start of a new year isn't about pressure. It's about purpose. It's a moment to reflect, to ask what truly matters. Shopify helps turn that clarity into action. Whether you're starting with a simple idea or a growing brand, Shopify gives you the tools to build at your own pace. Templates, AI tools, social integrations. Everything designed to support your vision so your goals don't stay in your head, they begin to take shape in the world. Shopify grows with you every step of the way. If you're ready to build with intention in 2026, go to shopify.com j and begin. Let's be honest. Life is stressful. It's work, it's relationships and the state of the world. But there's a way to bring that stress level down. Calm. It's the number one app for mental wellness with tons of content to manage anxiety, promote concentration and help you unwind. There's music, meditation and more calm. Makes it easy to de stress. You can literally do a one minute breathing exercise. Personally, I love the soundscapes. Nothing like a little rain on leaves to help soothe my nervous system. I've actually been working with CALM for a couple of years now and I'd love for you to check out my series on reducing overwhelm. Eight Short Practices Quick Relief Right now, listeners of on purpose get 40% off a subscription to Calm Premium at calm.com j that's C-A-L-M.com j-A- for 40% off. Calm your mind, change your life. You can't hate yourself interchanging because you don't invest. You don't give time, you don't give energy to someone you hate. So if you hate yourself, how can you bring out the best in yourself. If you hate yourself, how can you build a life that you're excited by? The number one health and wellness podcast, Jay Shetty. Jay Shetty.

The one, the only, Jay Shetty.

Hey, everyone. Welcome back to On Purpose, the number one health and wellness podcast in the world. Thanks to each and every one of you that I come back every week to become happier, healthier, and more healed. If you're here right now, it's because you believe that your mental health is a priority in your life. And I'm so grateful that in 2024, you're making the time, taking the time, investing your energy in making this a top, top priority. Now, today's episode is all about how to silence your inner critic when it gets too loud and tell to give up. How many of you in the last seven days have heard your inner critic say, you're not good enough? Well, then, this episode is for you. How many of you have heard your inner critic say, you just can't get it together, can you? Well, then, this episode is for you. How many of you have heard your inner critic say, have you seen what they're doing? Have you seen how far behind you are already? Can you believe it's only the end of January and you've already fallen apart? If the answer is yes, this episode is for you. Research shows that only 9% of people that make resolutions complete them. In fact, research goes on to show that 23% of people quit their resolution by the end of the first week and 43% quit by the end of January. If you are one of those people, this episode is for you. And by the way, some of you may still be going on strong, but your inner critic is still loud. Even if you're nailing your New Year's resolution, you're getting it right. You're on point. You're still hearing that voice say, you're not good enough. You're not strong enough. You're not moving fast enough. You're not getting better enough. So, interesting. Now, what's really interesting is we're not struggling because we broke our New Year's resolution. We break our New Year's resolution because of how we talk to ourselves. Think about that for a second. The reason we quit doing something is because of the story we tell ourselves about it. Think about the last time you quit something. Think about the last time you gave up on something. Think about the last time you had a habit that you couldn't keep up. I promise you that somewhere your inner critic told you that you should feel Guilty, embarrassed, ashamed, because of where you were. And there's no point in carrying on. You fell off once and your inner critic said, you're just going to fall off again. What's the point? Or you were doing something brilliantly and your inner critic said, you're still behind. You'll never catch up. We don't fail because we're not disciplined. It's because of how we talk to ourselves when we mess up, when we lose a sense of discipline, a habit, a routine. The way we talk to ourselves is what steals away our momentum, our drive, our enthusiasm, our energy. It's how we speak to ourselves in the quiet moments, in the silent moments, in the moments in between that defines what happens outside of it. Now, I'm sure all of you are listening right now and thinking, jay, I can relate to all of this. And what's fascinating when I was looking at the research is there are two broad types of self criticism from a researcher named Sullivan, a clinical psychologist based in Atlanta. Now, some of these thoughts. This inner critic is first person I statements like I'm so lazy, I'm so complacent, I'm so not smart enough. Right? Whatever it may be, it's I'm so fill in the blank. And other people use second person language like you didn't go to the gym all week or you're not good enough or you're never going to get that job, or you could never start a podcast. This second type of statement tends to be really, really challenging to listen to. And Sullivan says that our brains process those thoughts as if someone in a position of authority is talking to us. They know all our flaws and they pretend like they can predict the future. Right? When you're hearing that voice that says you can't do it, you're not good enough, you're not smart enough. It's actually even more challenging. So whether you're hearing I'm so lazy, or whether you're hearing you're so lazy, I'm going to Share with you 7 principles, 7 tips and hacks to help you navigate your inner critic and build a healthier relationship with the inner critic so that you can actually engage in a dialogue with it. Now, these tips are super practical, super accessible. You'll be able to implement them right away from today. You won't have to buy something or develop a new skill or tool or whatever it may be. You'll be able to do this today. So take a screenshot of your favorite ones, make notes, share this with a friend, because this episode is going to help you become kinder to yourself, more compassionate to yourself, yet still let you be driven and ambitious. I think that's our worry. Our worry is that if we're not hard on ourselves, then we won't achieve great things. But we're scared that if we're too kind to ourselves, then we'll be lethargic or complacent. Right? How many times have you ever thought to yourself, well, if I don't put pressure on myself, then I'm just going to coast? And how many times have you tried to think, well, I'm going to put so much pressure on myself, but that also limits your ability. So in this episode, I'm going to help you understand. How do you navigate the inner critic so that you can still be ambitious and driven and succeed in whatever way you describe that word, and at the same time be kind, compassionate and mindful. Now, let me ask you a question. When was the last time you helped someone that you hate? If your answer was never great, if your answer was, actually, I do remember helping someone I hate. How consistently and how constantly did you help that person? Generally, we don't help people that we hate. We don't invest in people that we hate, especially not consistently or constantly. So think about this. We think we can hate ourselves into changing, but you can only love yourself into changing. Let me say that again. You can't hate yourself into changing because you don't invest, you don't give time, you don't give energy to someone you hate. So if you hate yourself, how can you bring out the best in yourself? If you hate yourself, how can you build a life that you're excited by? So just recognizing that this mindset of, I'm going to criticize myself, I'm going to put pressure on myself, I'm going to hate myself interchanging, I'm going to hate myself into being better. Doesn't make sense. And by the way, we do this to the people we love in our lives. We often think that if I make someone feel bad enough, they'll be good to me. If I make someone feel like they're messing up, they'll get better. How many times have people improved because of shame? Because of guilt? How many people have you shamed into change? How many people have you guilted into change? How many people have you humiliated into change? And how many people have you criticized into change? Maybe they did it for a bit, but not long term. We can't guilt people into change. You can't shame people into change. You can't embarrass people into change. So stop doing it to yourself. You can't hate yourself into change. We change because someone believes in us. We change because someone loves us. We change because someone invests enough. You will change because you invest in yourself. You will change because you believe in yourself. You will change because you love yourself. If you want to be better, be better with yourself. If you want to do more, be kinder to yourself. That's what you'll respond to. How many people in your life respond positively to hate, guilt or shame? Yet we all still try to hate guilt and shame ourselves into positive change. This is your reminder to be more compassionate, more kind and more loving. I was saying this to a friend the other day who was saying that all he does is gives himself a hard time. He'll overanalyze every situation, every conversation, a presentation at work. He'll relive that moment again and again and again in his head and keep telling himself it should have been better. It could have been better. If only he did this, if only he did that. What does that do? It makes him feel discouraged. But what if he said to himself, let's make a plan of how to be better next time. Let's make a plan of how we're going to improve next time. Let's actually take a look at what we did great and where we can grow. Let's look at both greatness and growth in ourselves. Let's not be blind to our flaws. Let's not be falsely flattering or complimentary. We don't want that either. But let's focus on greatness and growth within ourselves. After a presentation, asking yourself, what was great about it? Okay, where can I grow After a phone call, a tough one. What was I great at? What can I grow at? We're so quick to judge ourselves and point out all the growth and actually not even growth. We point out the guilt, but we avoid the growth and the greatness. Remember, you can only love yourself into change. You can only love yourself into change. You can't hate yourself into change. Let's be real. Your best days start the night before. Hatch believes small, intentional rituals at bedtime can completely change how you show up in life. Here's the thing. Self care doesn't start with doing more. It starts with resting. Better sleep is the foundation of emotional, mental and spiritual well being. That's why Hatch created Hatch Restore, a smart sleep clock designed to help you reclaim those moments around bedtime. It's all about removing distractions and creating calming routines. Think gentle audio science backed sleep sounds and a sunrise wake up that makes mornings feel good. So if you're ready to unwind at night and wake up refreshed, head to Hatch Co and start your ritual today. Hey everyone, Jay here. And as much as you listen to me, you ought to listen to your body. Little things like headaches, hair loss can be your body's way of telling you, hey, something's up. Do you hear me? I will not be ignored. Luckily, Amazon One Medical has 24. 7 virtual care, so they're always there to listen to your body. Thanks to Amazon One Medical, healthcare just got less painful when you think about your day. Whether you're running a business or managing a household, so much of what you do depends on staying connected. From work calls and emails to streaming, learning and staying in touch with the people who matter most. Connectivity isn't luxury anymore, it's the foundation. That's why fast, reliable Internet makes such a difference. And when your connection works seamlessly, you're not distracted by interruptions. You're able to focus on what actually matters. And when support is there, when you need it, it creates a sense of trust and stability that allows you to keep moving forward. Spectrum Business understands that no two businesses are the same. They offer Internet, advanced, wi, fi, phone, TV and mobile services designed to support businesses of all sizes. With packages built to fit different needs and budgets. And with 100% US based customer support available 24. Seven, help is always within reach so businesses can stay up and running without missing a beat. Millions of business owners rely on Spectrum Business to stay connected and grow with confidence. Visit spectrum.combusiness to learn more. Restrictions apply services not available in all areas Step number two this is a really important step. Give your inner critic a name. If we want to remove that idea of you're lazy or I'm lazy, we have to shift to recognizing that your inner critic is an external voice, that it isn't your voice, it's not how you feel about yourself. And this is a really, really important tool because this next point that I want to share and these both are correlated and connected is your inner critic. It's not your voice because someone said it to you first. You may think it's your belief, but it's not your belief. You heard it from someone before. I remember having a client whose mum used to tell her that she looked overweight, that she looked fat, that she didn't look good when she was a young girl. And as she grew older, no matter how her body shaped and shifted and everything else, she still had that Inner voice. No matter what she wore, if she wore a color that her mother didn't like, she heard her mother's voice. What happens, though, is that over time, the person's voice merges into sounding like yours. If you repeat someone else's statement enough in your mind, it sounds like it's your own voice. So I want you to think about it. Who said it to you first, and you might even name it that person. So if it was your mum, if it was your dad, if it was the teacher at school that kept saying something to you, that has become that voice, maybe let's give that name to that voice. That way we can recognize that it's a conversation between us and our teacher, or us and our parents, as opposed to to us and ourselves. We start recognizing that it isn't how we feel about ourselves, that this is an adopted belief, that this is a belief that we've picked up. How does that help? When you give your inner critic a name, you start recognizing that this is a conversation, that this is a relationship that you've built, that you can distance from that you can disconnect from that it isn't something within you. And when you identify who said it to you first, you also start to recognize how careful we have to be in the influences we allow into our space. And now we don't want to find other people who reaffirm that voice. Often, if we had a parent that treated us that way, we also find a partner who treats us that way, because it feels familiar, it feels relatable. And Thich Nhat Hanh talked a lot about this, this idea that we crave familiar pain. So you would rather repeat a toxic, familiar pattern than break it to experience an unfamiliar, uncertain pattern? So you would rather choose toxic familiarity than untoxic uncertainty? Let me say that again. You would rather choose toxic familiarity than untoxic uncertainty. Because we'd rather deal with problems that we're aware of than the challenge of a new problem. So often what we do is if our parents believed a certain thing about us, we find a partner who believes it as well. Or we do the opposite. We try and find a partner who adores us and makes that feeling go away. But guess what? It doesn't. Because the voice is still in our heads. We're looking for the partner who tells us the opposite without forgetting the message we've gained from our parents. So give your inner critic a name. Name it after that teacher or that parent so you can make it a conversation or give it an imaginary name to even Weaken it further to remove that authority from it. And who said it to you? First, recognize that this isn't your voice and actually say that whenever you hear that inner voice say, this is not me. This is not my voice. I am not my thoughts. I am not my mind. Actually, repeat that with me right now. I am not my thoughts. I can choose my thoughts. I can choose which thoughts to give energy to. I can choose the voice inside my head. Step number four is remove the I am statement. Instead of saying, I am lazy, say, I am experiencing laziness. I'm experiencing whatever emotion it may be, allowing yourself to create some distance from that emotion. Or what I accept is I may say, I am feeling lazy and I am going to make a plan. I am feeling tired and I'm going to get to bed early tonight. So if you're accepting it, you can say the I am, but you're still saying I am feeling instead of saying, you are right. That distance allows you to disconnect from that inner critic. It allows you to create some space between you and that inner critic. So you can now fill that space with enthusiasm and energy. The repetition of, I'm lazy, I'm not good enough, I'm not smart enough. I. I can't do that. What that does is it creates a story and a narrative that you repeat and perpetuate in your life. Step number five. This one has probably been my favorite one because I think what we often try and do is we try to silence the inner critic before taking the right step. And this is pretty tough because the inner critic doesn't go away. I still have an inner critic today, right? After all these years, I still have an inner critic. It still shows up, it still turns up. Because over years I'd heard things. You're not good enough at that. You can't do that. You're going to lose everything. You don't deserve this. Whatever it may have been, right, it still appears. And what I realize is that I have a few choices with it. I can either think, okay, I need to get rid of this thought, and then I'll live my life, right? Once I get rid of this thought, then I'll take action. And actually, it's the opposite. Don't let it stop you from making the right choice or, or taking action. You can be self critical and still work out. You can be self critical and still meditate. So often what we do is our mind says, oh, you missed meditation yesterday. What's the point of meditating today? And then you think, all right, well, let's not meditate today. Well, no, you can be critical of yourself and still turn up to meditation. You can be critical of yourself and still work out. And it's better to take the right action because the right action will allow you to gain more strength, to have a healthier conversation. You'll then be able to say, well, I worked out today and I feel great, so I'm going to keep working out. And guess what? I feel great when I work out, so I'm going to keep working out. I'm going to keep building that muscle. So don't let something stop you from making and taking the right choice and right decision. So many of us block ourselves because of a couple of misses, because of a belief about ourselves. How many of you have missed out on a great opportunity that was offered to you because somewhere you felt you don't deserve that opportunity? Maybe you bumped into someone and they said to, hey, message me. I'd love to talk to you about this opportunity. And you didn't even message because you were so scared that you'd mess it up and you'd rather not even turn up. You'd rather not even go there. How many of you in your life have tried something and because it didn't work out one day, because one day didn't go wrong, you changed your belief about yourself. Please, please, please. Your inner critic is a retrainable voice. Your inner critic is not a truth. Your inner critic is not a reality. Your inner critic is a changeable, trainable voice. And that's what we're trying to do here. We're trying to make it a voice that is like your coach in your mind, that is going to excel and allow you to want to do better. Ask yourself when you want a friend to improve, when you want to encourage Shia and enthuse your friend, how do you talk to them? How would you explain them to be better? And this is an activity that I want you to do. Find the area of your life where you most overthink, overanalyze, and overwhelm yourself. What's something that triggers you regularly into your inner critic, giving you a hard and tough time? Let's say that when you make a mistake at work, that's when you're the kind of person that wants to lock yourself in a bathroom and completely, you know, attack yourself in that moment. I want you to ask yourself this question. How would I connect with a friend? How would I connect with a loved one if they just told me this news? How would I talk to them? Not what Would I say to them? How would I talk to them? I'm sure it's with love. I'm sure it's with empathy. Sure it's with compassion. Okay, now what would you say to them? You wouldn't just say to them, hey, it's all going to be fine. And you wouldn't say to them, oh, you really messed up this time. You're the worst. You're going to get fired. You'd say, hey, let's figure out how we can avoid this mistake in the future. Let's figure out how to improve this situation right now. Let's build the skill set we need in order to perform better. Notice how the way you talk to yourself transforms how you talk to others and how you listen to others. I've realized that when I miss a day of going to the gym, giving myself grace allows me to commit again tomorrow. Making myself guilty may force me to work out today, but it doesn't last. Let's say I have a day where I eat unhealthy, or a couple of days where I ate something that I know wasn't good for me. And then I can berate myself, I can criticize myself, I can slander myself, I can do all of that stuff. But if I actually ask myself, hey, why did that happen? What was it about that day that drove me to that decision? Oh, I was tired. Oh, I was jet lagged. Oh, yeah, that was the day where I was feeling really stressed. Understood. Okay, so let me make sure that I'm resting more. Let me make sure that I'm sleeping better this weekend, and then I'll make better choices. Checking in with yourself and asking yourself, why was that? Why did I do that? Why did I miss going to the gym? What was the reason? Rather than being like, you missed going to the gym, you're the worst. Now, a couple more things I want to mention to you. We have to start journaling our wins and good moments. We have to start sharing them more deeply. What we usually do is when something good happens in our life, we celebrate for a day. But when something bad happens in our life, we cry for a month. It's no wonder that our negative thoughts become more pronounced, right? If you get something wrong, you literally tell yourself every day for a week, I'm the worst, I should have done better. But if you get something right, you may say once, oh, yeah, I did good. And whether we're being modest, whether we're playing ourselves down, whatever it may be, we're training our mind to say, when I do Something wrong, I go really hard on myself. And when I do something well, I consider it to be easy. I consider it to be expected. We expect greatness from ourselves, and so we only amplify our weaknesses and flaws. Next time you do something right, next time you do something well, I want you to journal it deeply. I want you to share it with a friend. And by the way, I got into a bad habit of this when a few years ago when I was really grateful that so many of my dreams were coming true. When I was speaking to friends, I started to play down my achievements because I didn't want to make other people feel uncomfortable. And while I was well intentioned, what ended up happening is I started becoming more negative because what I was doing is I was amplifying my negative experience and minimizing my positive experience. Now, if you do this consistently, what ends up happening is you're spending more time talking about the mistakes and flaws and spending less time talking about your successes. Now, I'm not telling you to be arrogant and walk around being like, look what I achieved. Look what I did. That's not the point. But the point is, if you don't deeply cherish, welcome, celebrate your successes deeply, you're training your mind to be more critical than a cheerleader. We need to strengthen the cheerleader in our mind. Not the arrogant person, not the egotistic person, but the cheerleader that says, you're doing great, you're on the right path, you're making the right choices. Keep going. Not the voice that says you're the best in the world. No one's as good as you. Everyone else sucks, Right? It's not that voice. So notice the difference between the critic, the cheerleader, and the person who's actually cheating you. Right? We're not trying to be cheated by our ego. We're trying to be challenged and enthused by the cheerleader. Final step. At the end of every day, write down three things you did that day that you did well. Three things. It could be as simple as washing the dishes and saying to yourself, today I did a really good job washing the dishes. It could be you got the laundry done. It could be that you wrote that article, you launched that podcast, you got to the gym, whatever is. What are three things you did that you did well today that you made happen today. We have to start retraining that thought because guess what? Most of us, when our head hits the pillow, will list all the things we didn't do. This isn't positive thinking. This is improving the conversation in your head. If your head hits the pillow and you go, I didn't do that, I didn't do that. I didn't do that. Basically what you're saying is you're a failure. But if you said to yourself, okay, I didn't do those three things, but I did that, and I did that, and I did that, all right, I'm doing okay. I'm doing good. I can do better, but I'm doing good. I really hope that this episode helps you silence, calm, and navigate your inner critic. I'm hoping that you can be kinder and more compassionate to yourself so that you can be more successful, so that you can achieve more, so that you can be more impactful. And I'm wishing you a year of productivity, performance, but also patience, calmness, and love. Thank you so much for listening. Please leave a review on any podcast app that you're listening to this on right now. Look out. Every Monday, there's a new episode with a guest. Every Friday, there's a new episode with me. And of course, you've got five years of episodes to listen to, so there's plenty of episodes to go through. Enjoy it. Make sure you've subscribed to turn on your notifications because I know a lot of you have been missing some of my episodes. I don't want you to miss out on purpose. In 2024, we're on the journey to happiness, health, and healing together. If you love this episode, you will also love my interview with Kendall Jenner on setting boundaries to increase happiness and healing your inner child.

You could be reading something that someone is saying about you, and being like that is so unfair because that's not who I. I am. And that really gets to me sometimes. But then looking at myself in the mirror and being like, but I know who I am. Why does anything else matter?

Hey, it's Joel and Matt from how to Money. If your New Year's resolution is to finally get your finances in shape, we've got your back prices, they're still high, and the economy is all over the place. But 2026 is the year for you to get intentional and make real progress. That's right. Yeah. Each week we break down what's happening with your money, the most important issues to focus on, and the small moves that make a big difference. Kick off the year with confidence. Listen to How To Money on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hi, I'm Dr. Priyanka Wali.

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It's a new year, and on the podcast Health Stuff we're resetting the way we talk about our health, which means.

Being honest about what we know, what we don't know, and how messy it can all be. I like to sleep in late and sleep early. Is there a chronotype for that or am I just depressed? Health Stuff is about learning, laughing, and feeling a little less alone.

Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This is Dr. Jesse Mills, host of the Mailroom podcast. Each January, men promise to get stronger, work harder, and fix what's broken. But what if the real work isn't physical at all? I sat down with psychologist Dr. Steve Poulter to unpack shame, anxiety and the emotional pain men were never taught how to know.

Part of the way through the Valley of Despair is realizing this has happened and you have to make a choice whether you're going to stay in it or move forward.

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