idk who needs to see this: your inner critic may not really be your voice. who was most critical of you as a child? as a teen? were they stern, or even mean, because criticism was how they protected themselves (and you) from the ugliness of the world?

ask yourself whose vocabulary you’re using. whose measures of success and failure, of right and wrong guide your treatment of yourself?

please take the time to figure out how you wanna be in the world. take steps toward it.

you don’t have to live on guard 24/7. hypervigilance is stressful.

no, babycakes, being on guard constantly doesn’t actually stop shit from happening. rest your inner guard. resting doesn’t invite bad stuff into your life, okay?

you cannot know everything. because you can’t know everything, you should also know that you can’t predict everything!

“talk back” to that voice in your head sometimes. write down what it says in one color of ink. write your response to that in another color.
my old therapist taught me to do this. it’s a game changer.

you can also ask your inner critic what it wants. you’ll get the answer. write it all down. get a better feel for your inner critic so you can redirect it. it’ll never go away but you can engage it differently.