Standing Up To Self-Criticism

Heyyaa favorable community! Today is a wonderful day. Everyone has been doing fantastic with the daily challenges I’ve been sharing on Snapchat ^_^ The other day, I challenged our community to practice nonjudgmental thinking. For one day, we would try our best to refrain from judging ourselves, and we would release from caring about what other people think of us. This challenge inspired me to pull out some rollerblades that I had thrown aside after awkwardly trying them once before. The fear of falling and humiliating myself in public had held me back from wanting to improve on the skates for years. But with you in mind, I strapped on my protective gear and hit the streets. And I had a really great time! Such a great time, that the next day I went out and did double the amount of skating as I did the first day ^_^ Some members told me similar stories of positive results they had from practicing non-judgment, but some people reported a lot of difficulty standing up to their critical thoughts. When we can clearly pick our negative thoughts out of our consciousness, we can stand strong against our negative thoughts and stop blowing everything out of proportion. During our daily meditation, we can practice listening to our thoughts, and we can practice self acceptance. Then we can carry that energy with us through our daily activities. If we encounter any problems, we look for a solution without adding more frustration or resisting the situation at hand.

​As soon as a critical thought enters our awareness, we can place our hand on our belly, take a deep breath in through the nose, and say, “I accept myself.”

Read more about radical acceptance here.