Silencing the inner bitch.

I may have written before about my inner bitch. You know, that nasty chick who lives inside me inserting her snarky comments and thinking all the things that I would never actually SAY out loud. My inner bitch is pretty fiesty and quite frankly is one very judgemental and critical cow. Not someone you'd like to meet.

The bitch is toxic.

You know who she is. You've got one too. And if you don't, you're either a saint or pretty damn good at lying to yourself.

There's days when I am successful in taping the bitch's mouth shut and they're the best days. The ones where you can find a positive in everything and something nice to say to and about everyone. I like to be nice. Being mean doesn't make me feel good I've written before that I just seem to be missing the revenge gene.

But then there's the other days where that outspoken chick dominates and there she is injecting her nasty poison into your mind with every person you see and every event you experience. She really knows how to bring down a mood. Sadly though sometimes she's damned funny, albeit evil and mean, and I guess that's why it's so hard to kick her to the curb for good.

The problem with those days is that she saves her true vitriol for guess who...me.

And she's brilliant at pushing my buttons, finding my weak spots and generally making me feel like crap.

So when I read this article, my first thought was that the author was speaking directly to me. And some of the ideas she espouses tally nicely with what the happiness challenge was all about. So I gotta think they're onto something here.

The author talks about taming your inner critic, which I prefer to express as 'silencing your inner bitch'. Mine might not be as tactful but if you can't be honest with yourself and your inner bitch, then who can you be honest with?

Probably the most key point the article makes is that women treat themselves in a way that they would never dream of treating others. We are our own harshest critics, and sometimes treat ourselves so badly that if we met us, we would hate us on sight. Who hasn't had those days where all they hear is "I can't", "I'm not good enough" or "you're not smart/pretty/talented [insert adjective here] enough"?

I really loved the concept of this article, that to succeed in life, in whatever way that means something to you individually, first you have to start being nicer to yourself. I hear my mum saying in my head 'stop worrying about what others are doing and concentrate on what you're doing' and my dad saying 'treat others how you'd like to be treated'. This article says I should treat ME the way I'd like to be treated, which really shouldn't sound like a ground-breaking phrase, should it? It should be natural to be nice to me, wouldn't you think?

After all, I am conscious of not being critical of my son, my friends, my family, so why then would it be OK to criticise me?

In the past, I've basically tried to kill off my inner bitch which I guess is kind of self-defeating, So I'm going to try a novel approach and just be mindful of what the bitch is trying to say, and then respect myself enough to revoke her power instead. If she can't get to me, then it doesn't matter what she says, right?

What do you think? Do you agree with the article or do you have any experiences where you've told your inner bitch to take a hike, and succeeded? Would love to hear!

xx