This is something I’ve been puzzled by for a long time, for myself. The “inner critic” is generally described as a literal voice that people hear, saying things like “wow, I’m such an idiot”, “nobody likes me”, etc.
My problem here is that I generally don’t think in words (except when thinking about how to explain something to others, like this), and I don’t have thoughts that strongly resemble that kind of self-talk even in abstracted form. The closest thing I can identify to an inner critic is spontaneous emotional experiences that seem like they plausibly would be the emotional result I’d get if I had such a voice saying those kinds of things in my thoughts.
I’ve had some minor success with doing a combination of Focusing and journaling to try to put words to what I’m feeling, but it doesn’t seem like it captures the same essence as all the writing about dealing with one’s inner critic that I’ve found.
So for anyone else who is similarly nonverbal in their thinking: How do you experience your inner critic? Are there methods you have for identifying the thoughts, and interacting with them analogously to the typical verbal-oriented advice for dealing with one’s inner critic?
[Question] Nonverbal thinkers: how do you experience your inner critic?
This is something I’ve been puzzled by for a long time, for myself. The “inner critic” is generally described as a literal voice that people hear, saying things like “wow, I’m such an idiot”, “nobody likes me”, etc.
My problem here is that I generally don’t think in words (except when thinking about how to explain something to others, like this), and I don’t have thoughts that strongly resemble that kind of self-talk even in abstracted form. The closest thing I can identify to an inner critic is spontaneous emotional experiences that seem like they plausibly would be the emotional result I’d get if I had such a voice saying those kinds of things in my thoughts.
I’ve had some minor success with doing a combination of Focusing and journaling to try to put words to what I’m feeling, but it doesn’t seem like it captures the same essence as all the writing about dealing with one’s inner critic that I’ve found.
So for anyone else who is similarly nonverbal in their thinking: How do you experience your inner critic? Are there methods you have for identifying the thoughts, and interacting with them analogously to the typical verbal-oriented advice for dealing with one’s inner critic?