Feeling Overwhelmed by Self Critical Thoughts? Here's a Helpful Video to Get You Out of Your Mind!

It happens to all of us. We get stuck in our mind, as if a song is on repeat play. We all have negative thoughts about our work, our relationships, or how we look. 

If these are more than fleeting ideas that pass through our mind on a bad day, you might find yourself in a land of gloom and doom, telling yourself things such as "I'll always be lonely" or "I'll never find a meaningful job". 

​For some of us, if we repeat these ideas in our head often enough, we start believing them as truth and fact.

You'll want to watch this video if you've gotten into a cycle of negative self-talk. I often hear clients make statements that they believe represent their inner core, such as "I'm not good with money so there's not much I can do about my situation."  We're SO sure it's actually true because we've been telling ourselves the same story over and over until we believed it to be The Truth About Me. 

Mindfulness--along with practicing self-compassion and self-acceptance-- can help give you some distance from those thoughts. With these tools, you can learn to reveal your true self and get away from the critical voice in your head. You may not stop the criticism and bullying that goes on in that mind of yours, but you can choose to change how much you believe it and what you want to do about it.

Remember, don't believe everything you think! 

Check out this brief (and fun!) video demonstration of some tools to help you build skills to recognize when you're trapped in your judging mind. Marie Forleo answers a reader question: What to do when I feel useless and alone? 

Watch here: Marie Forleo's Video. 

For more information on these and other mindfulness and self-acceptance tools, I suggest the workbook called Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life by Steven Hayes, the founder of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.

© Connie Linas, LCSW (LCS22837)