Stop Criticizing Yourself

We all are our worst critics and are harder on ourselves than we are with other people. Negative self criticism affects your health both physically and mentally. Your private inner dialogue can either be a powerful tool or rob you of your mental strength and the way you feel about yourself.

There are healthy ways to be critical of yourself and hold yourself accountable without thinking negatively, guilty or giving up on a goal. And it starts with paying attention to your thoughts. Did you know it's estimated that we have 60,000 thoughts a day. That's 60,000 chances to either build yourself up or tear yourself down. Don't you want to try to give yourself a chance to build yourself up everyday? I know I do.

Do you have a harsh inner critic? I used too. It held me back in so many ways. It held me back thinking I could lose weight. I kept telling myself I couldn't and had nothing but negative thoughts to keep me from even trying. Because it's often easier to be more compassionate towards others than to yourself. But there's a difference between telling yourself that you're not good enough and reminding yourself that there's room for improvement and growth. Accept your flaws, give yourself grace, replace those negative thoughts with more benevolent ones. Counteract those negative thoughts and remind yourself that you're good enough! You're human and are going to make mistakes and move on from them. Don't beat yourself up over them.

You've been criticizing yourself for years and it hasn't worked.

How about you try to accept yourself and see what happens! As always take one day at a time, one meal, and one workout. And remember small changes lead to big benefits.