The Inner Critic is born from wounding and trauma, and it can be a highly counter productive or even destructive force in the early stages of self awareness… but it’s possible to evolve this troubling archetype.

Self healing doesn’t mean abandoning value judgments and moral choices - this would be like abandoning all standards or boundaries - but we do deserve freedom when it comes to transforming shame-based self-criticism into righteous self-judgement without a sense of punishment.

Internalised criticism often mirrors the outer criticism we experienced in childhood. We internalise and amplify the spoken and unspoken judgments of family and friends.

The healed Inner Critic evolves through life-affirmative standards which we choose ourselves - you decide the direction as the adult you are, you choose the measurements.

Put simply: you cannot bypass self-standards but you can evolve your inner critic, and you should really prioritise this work if you struggle with shame or self-punishment.

What would healthy self-correction without punishment look like for you?

Jordan