How to Silence Your Inner Critic
I believe it was in the 70s that Nancy Reagan made her famous, well-meaning plea to the young people of the world to “just say no to drugs.” You’ve no idea how many fortunes have been made by so-called experts selling us the same idea. Just think positive instead of negative. Hope realized this during her years of depression. She read a library of books on how to cope or silence her negative thoughts, and so often her reaction was pure frustration. She understood exactly what the books wanted her to do, but she couldn’t do it. That was the whole problem.
Positive thoughts will inevitably bring positive emotions and feelings with them, which is a pretty good definition of happiness. Studies have found that even when you are in a financially impoverished, or possibly even dangerous situation, you can still have positive thoughts and emotions, you can still be very happy as long as you’re not in immediate danger. In fact, you might be much happier than someone whose circumstance are much better than yours, to the degree that no one—even you—would choose your life’s circumstances over theirs. Conversely, you can be in the best of circumstances and still far from happy. I’ve worked with many people for whom this was the case.
My opinion is that most of the self-help industry has been making their fortunes over the years selling us a polished version of “Just Say No,” whether in a book, a seminar, or a workshop. For most of us, these records probably make us worse, not better, because they make us feel that we’re failing to do something everyone else can do easily.
In my experience, about one to three people in a hundred can “just say no” when it comes to changing negative thoughts to positive. They just needed the instructions, or the encouragement. But for the other 97 percent of us, it’s not enough. Your unconscious mind is a million times more powerful than your willpower. Further, your negative thoughts and memories are tied to your survival instinct, which is the most powerful instinct you have, and the last one your unconscious mind is willing to let you change.
But there are ways to change your programming, even quick and easy ones, and this in turn can change a self-critical thought process to a positive one, or at least a neutral one. Almost all the techniques I know are energy techniques, which makes sense. Your memories, thoughts, and emotions are made of energy, not flesh and bone. It takes an energy tool to fix and energy problem. But the real proof is in results, and in 18 ½ years in my company, as best we can tell we’ve had well over a 90 percent effectiveness with people all over the world, as opposed to a 90 percent failure rate from the “just do it” crowd.
Everyone’s first instinct is to try and “just do it,” unless they’ve already tried and been forced to give up on it. After all, it’s how we do everything as adults. If I want lunch, I’ve got to go get lunch. If I want clean clothes, I’ve got to wash them. If I want money, I have to work. So I tell people, “Go ahead and try using your willpower. But at the same time, use Trilogy or Memory Engineering as well.” Once their negative thoughts have changed, most of them intuitively realize it wasn’t their willpower that did the trick. They often use the word, “effortless.” So don’t let another day go by without starting this process of change—it will change not only your life, but those of everyone around you for the better.
Have a blessed, wonderful day!
Alex Loyd
