For a young child, the words of parents, teachers and other adults are almost always perceived as truth. He listens to them as he grows up, without in any way assessing their significance. The task of parents and teachers is to help the child adapt to society, but they do not always do this in a form that is constructive for the child. Growing up, a person literally absorbs the voice of his parents or those significant people who participated in his upbringing. As he gets older, he begins to criticize and evaluate himself in the same way that others criticized and evaluated him earlier. The external voice becomes our internal Critic, and accompanies us in everything we do. Usually his voice sounds so stern, as if our parents were talking to us. And at the first sounds indicating its appearance, we begin to feel like a helpless little child. “It seems like you’ve been imagining yourself a lot lately! Dreaming of a better life?! Just look at you! You don't deserve anything good! Don't make people laugh! You can’t even put two words together, but are you going to be a leader? This is ridiculous and stupid! Forget about a happy life!!! Your place is where you are now. Abundance? All these are empty dreams. You have never seen or will ever see anything good in your life. And all because you are simply unworthy of anything better than what you have! The inner critic rushes to find flaws in everything. To him, we never measure up to his requirements. He considers all our actions only from the point of view of the number of mistakes we have made. The concept of “success” does not exist for him. He seeks to immediately suppress any of our undertakings. The concept of “correct” is a relative phenomenon for him, even if we ourselves are sure that we have not made a single mistake. Next to him we feel depressed and broken. He constantly forces us to justify ourselves to him. Wanting to free ourselves from the oppression of his criticism, we usually try to convince him or prove to him that we are right. But fighting him is not only pointless, but also useless. It represents a part of our psyche. It is a voice within us, but it is not us. And yet, sometimes, when we allow him to take a little more internal space for his self-expression, he can turn into a despot who opposes all our endeavors. At such moments, he strives to be in the very center and allows himself not to be shy in his statements - making the most unflattering judgments and assessments about you. In order to learn more about this inner part of us, which constantly takes an active part in our inner life, we should get to know it better. To do this, I suggest you do the following exercise. 1. Turn on music that you would associate with your inner Critic. Maybe it will be heavy music, like metal, or calm meditative music - it's your choice. 2. Close your eyes. Relax your body. Invite your inner Critic to communicate with you. When its image appears in your imagination, take a closer look at it. Just watch it for a while. Let him show himself in all his glory. What is his gender? Maybe for you he looks like some kind of abstract image, an animal? How old is he? How could you characterize him? Is he cunning, arrogant, anxious, fearful? What is his voice, the tone with which he talks to you? What are his gestures, facial expressions? What is he wearing? 3. Give him a name. 4. Having examined him well, start a conversation with him. Ask him questions. What is the purpose of your criticism? What are you afraid of? How can I help you? Can you express your desire to make me better in a different way? Listen carefully to his answers. How does he address you? How does he comment on your questions? Perhaps he has already begun to criticize you for doing something meaningless and useless? What words does he use for criticism? 5. Open your eyes. Take a piece of paper, pencils, paints, crayons or markers and try to draw it.