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Trending Articles of the Week

Trending Articles of the Week

Manage Your Attention, Not Your Time

So many stimuli compete for your attention each day that by the end of it, your brain feels like scrambled eggs. You can prevent that from happening by being more conscious of how you divide your attention over specific tasks. Here are three ways to keep your focus flowing.

5 Habits That Turn Off Negative Thinking

Negative thoughts only affect you if you give them power. But all too often they catch your attention and disturb your effectiveness. But you have the ability to turn that around and reduce their damage. You have control over your mind, and this article gives you some direction on how to take charge.

Impostor Syndrome: Why Success Makes You Feel Like A Fraud

The imposter syndrome typically happens to high achieving individuals who have a hard time adjusting to their success. It refers to the fear of being found out that their success is due to luck and not their abilities. This article explores this syndrome so you can understand it more fully and suggests ways to combat it.

~ Linda-Ann Stewart

Self-Compassion Can Help Tame Your Inner Critic

Self-Compassion Can Help Tame Your Inner Critic

When you make a mistake or mess up, you probably harshly judge and condemn yourself. This is your inner critic trying to motivate you to do better. But it generally makes things worse. To tame your inner critic, stop accepting what it says or fighting it. Instead, use self-compassion and be kind to yourself and that part of you. Here’s a three step strategy to defuse your inner critic and improve your relationship with yourself.



Transcript:

Thank you for watching. I’m Linda-Ann Stewart of Heartvision Consulting and a vision strategist. I’d like to give you a strategy that will help you improve your relationship with yourself and your ability to achieve your goals. It has to do with being kind or compassionate to yourself and your inner critic.

Unfortunately, when people do something less than perfect, they tend to judge, criticize and beat themselves up. Do you ever do that? Your inner critic is trying to whip you back into line, to motivate or protect you. But all those negative beliefs and labels you’ve given yourself surface, and make you feel lousy. Does it ever help? No, it doesn’t.

So how can you be compassionate with yourself and deal with the inner critic? Here’s a three step strategy to do so.

1. The first step is to pay attention when your inner critic starts its refrain, but refuse to buy into it. What it’s saying is generally not true. It’s just regurgitated stuff from the past, isn’t it? Just observe what you’re thinking and the feelings it dredges up. This is called being mindful. Not reacting to those ideas, just recognizing them.

2. Second step, acknowledge your inner critic and what it’s repeating. How could you be compassionate to this inner critic? Instead of fighting it, just say something like, “I understand what you’re trying to do.” Or “I know you think this is helpful, but it’s not.” One way is to talk to it like you would to a child who is verbally beating themselves up. Be kind.

3. Third step, be compassionate towards yourself. Say something like, “I messed up, but I’ll do better next time.” Or “I’m human and learning more every day.” Or “I had a moment of weakness. I’ll make a better choice next time.” What would you say to your best friend who’d made the kind of mistake you did? You’d be kind.

When you’re nice to yourself, you have more motivation to do and be better. You actually take more responsibility for your actions. Being compassionate towards yourself allows you to learn and make different choices next time. It will improve your self-image, your well being and your ability to achieve your goals.

If you’d to achieve a 90-day goal more easily, download my free comprehensive Strategic Vision Worksheet.

Thank you for watching. How can you be kinder towards yourself? Take care.

Read the accompanying article, Be Kind to Yourself for More Success.

~ Linda-Ann Stewart

Trending Articles of the Week

Trending Articles of the Week

Rainbow

The 1 Priceless Gift You Can Give to Anyone Anytime
A major source of happiness is giving others your time and energy. To give this gift doesn’t take much of either. You truly can have a positive impact on everyone you meet and thereby make the world a better place. This article describes 9 simple ways you can make yourself and others happier.

Your Self-Image Creates Your Reality
How do you see yourself? Your subconscious will follow that image and try to make it real for you. Your self-image can be changed and improved. Learn 4 ways to upgrade your self-image so you’re able to have the life you imagined.

Neuroscientists Say The Human Brain Erases Unimportant Data To Make More Intelligent Decisions
It’s normal to forget a person’s name, their face, or an anniversary. These minor lapses are natural, as the brain overwrites old data to make room for new. Research has found that doing this helps the brain focus on the things that will help you make decisions.

~ Linda-Ann Stewart

Psycho-Cybernetics: Lessons 1-5

Psycho-Cybernetics: Lessons 1-5

Psycho-Cybernetics is a form of self-image therapy developed by Dr Maxwell Maltz to help people rebuild their life based on positive belief in self. Dr. Maltz describes the first lesson of Psycho-Cybernetics, which is how we have 2 worlds within us, frustration and confidence. When we turn from frustration, we walk towards confidence. This is a 9 minute video of an interview with Dr. Maltz as he covers the first 5 lessons of Psycho-Cybernetics and how it can be used to improve your self-image.



~ Linda-Ann Stewart

“When Self-Image Sabotages Positive Thinking”

“When Self-Image Sabotages Positive Thinking”

by Linda-Ann Stewart

Positive thinking, which powers the Law of Attraction, always works, as long as there isn’t anything that conflicts with it. Some of those sabotaging issues are ones you know about, such as focusing on what you don’t have (instead of what you want), verbally negating the positive, and old programming conflicts. But one of the main reasons it doesn’t fulfill expectations is due to having a self-image that contradicts your positive focus.

Self-image is a combination of self-worth, self-esteem and self-acceptance. If your self-image doesn’t agree with your conscious affirmative thinking, then your subconscious won’t allow it to manifest. Your subconscious makes sure that what you attract into your life is consistent with what you believe about yourself. If you try to change the outer experience before changing the inner attitudes, your subconscious will short-circuit your positive thinking efforts.

Here are three of the ways a negative self-image can undermine your constructive thinking:

1. Guilt.

There are a couple of ways this can express in your life. Both tie up energy and focus.

The first way guilt can affect you is if you’re acting or thinking in a way that violates your values. For instance, if you consider yourself to be diligently honest, but you cheat on your taxes, this could set up a niggling feeling of guilt. You’ve ignored your values, and your subconscious knows that. So you unconsciously punish yourself by not getting that raise you want. The solution for this is to find where you’re going against your values and change it.

The other way is outdated feelings of guilt that aren’t valid anymore. You could still be feeling bad for stepping on your classmate’s hand in kindergarten. If something happened a long time ago, and you’ve learned the lesson from it, then this type of guilt no longer serves you. It has fulfilled its purpose. Stop punishing yourself by forgiving yourself and move on.

2. Standards and values.

You may have standards and values that conflict with what you’re affirming. For instance, you consider yourself to be honest and generous, and believe the rich to be selfish and corrupt. If you want to be wealthy, that would mean that you’d have to become selfish and corrupt, which would be inconsistent with your values. Your subconscious won’t allow that kind of incongruity.

You could also have old standards that prevent your achieving more. For instance, you want to earn more money, but you feel you shouldn’t make more money than your father or your husband. Not only would this be putting an unrealistic limit on your goal, it could prevent you from achieving it at all. Assess your standards and decide if they’re appropriate for you and and your goals. Some of those values are holdovers from past generations and need to be adjusted.

3. False beliefs about yourself.

Do you believe that you’re unworthy, undeserving, or unlovable? That’s a false belief. Evaluate anywhere you feel bad about yourself, and track it back to where it began. Usually the feeling got rooted in childhood, and was never challenged. Challenge it now. Consider where you’ve been successful, complimented, or appreciated. Those times could be more recent and more objective than the original events. Instead of focusing on the past lies that tear you down, fill your mind with all the constructive opinions that build you up. Stand up to your own self-criticism and let your power unfold.

Although a negative self-image can short-circuit positive thinking, the good news is that your self-image can be changed. Affirmation, visualization, and action in a constructive direction will reap great rewards. When your self-image is consistent with your positive thinking, you’ll get the results you want.

Affirmation

I know that positive thinking works, because what thought has created, thought can change. My thoughts are now changing to be in alignment with my goals. I now release anything that sabotages the good that I consciously choose. I forgive myself for past mistakes. I now update my standards and values to reflect what I feel is important. I recognize my true worth, and  focus on the positive about myself. As I improve my self-image, and act accordingly, it becomes easier for me to achieve my goals.

Copyright 2010 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved

A nationally known speaker, life coach, hypnotherapist, and writer, Linda-Ann Stewart helps people rediscover their power and sense of self-worth. Visit Secrets To The Law Of Attraction to download your copy of this free ebook.

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