Today’s Meditation

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“No struggle – no progress” — Frederick Douglass

Those words seem like an everyday occurrence in the world of a teacher. If it’s not your own struggle, it is the struggle of your students.

Today’s affirmation: “I have the power to…” e.g. gain inner peace, be insightful, be brave.

To gain inner peace for yourself, remember, that there is always something you can do. Change your thinking from a short-term fix to a long-term goal of experiencing sweet inner peace every day.

So far, we’ve focused on quieting the mind, finding your sense of control, creating your tranquil classroom, and harnessing the power of the breathing technique.

Silencing the inner critic

There is one aspect that many times gives us much trouble, our inner critic. We scold ourselves and are judgmental of the work we do. We criticize our time-management, our procrastination, we are angry because things didn’t go our way or expected, and we demean ourselves when lesson plans are not up to par.

Praise and positive thinking, even if deserved, is seldom cast our way from the self-critic.

And we know that the most feared foe is not the administrator asking for your weekly lesson plans or the colleague asking for some advice, but rather the inner critic who whispers, ever so forcefully, to scoop out a spoonful of judgment, a dollop of negativity, and a bowl full of scolding.

At one time or another, we have all fallen victim to this inner critic, whose voice whispers, ever so subtly… and then—self-respect, self-esteem are found way on the left field, with no chance of catching the ball.

The times we experience failures, real or perceived, our inner critic reinforces and finds new feelings we have — the guilt, the sabotaging effects of shame and self-criticism.

When we strive for perfectionism, and let that control our lives, we often do fail. We need to allow ourselves to be “good enough” and to create a world where the self-critic is diminished to appearing only when needed. Letting go of the constant self-barrage of negative thoughts and actions, is part of the progress on the journey of self-discovery.

We need to make a shift to happiness

Happiness and perfectionism seldom go hand in hand. Let go of the inner critic and find happiness. Approve of yourself and your work.

Once you’ve created, written, and decided on your lesson plans for the week, looked over them a dozen times, it’s time to say: “these are good enough” As always, there’s room for improvement, but at one point, you need to let go and give yourself time to reflect.

To make progress on any goal, you also have to make mistakes. If not for mistakes, we wouldn’t learn anything. Isn’t this what we tell our students all the time? The same goes for us, as teachers.

It’s okay to make those mistakes, even admit to them in front of the students! Yes, that was a revelation that changed the way I taught – I gave my inner critic a seat at the table, yet, she was not in constant talk-mode. The negativity of making mistakes lessened, it was okay to fail. And learn from it – continue with renewed vigor.

Learning from your mistakes makes you wiser, more knowledgeable, and a better teacher.

Learning to deal with your self-criticism is a skill. It’s a habit you can break. By quieting your mind and focusing on controlling the self-critic, you start to master your work, yourself, your mind, and it can even let you overcome some area of weakness or a bad habit.

Learning to master your self-critic gives you the freedom to believe in yourself, your abilities, your teaching, your thoughts, and your creativity.

Take a compassionate view of your self-critic, and start to let her around the table, but not let her talk incessantly. Be aware of the self-critic, and remember- you wouldn’t talk like that to anyone else. So why talk to yourself in such a critical way? Be gentle. Be forgiving. Be aware.

Self-awareness, self-care, and acknowledging things that matter most are the essential skills to building up your self-control.

“Sandwich every bit of criticism between two layers of praise.”

—Mary Kay Ash

With each speech given at a Toastmasters speaking group, an evaluation is given. This includes three (3) glows — positive affirmations, something really good about the speech and one (1) grow— something the speaker can improve on. The formula is two glows, a grow, and lastly, another glow. Remember this as you go through your day.

Try to give three glows to yourself for every grow you find and every time you think you’ve failed. Think: What went well? You could even write these down. Three things every day that went well. If you do find a grow, add it to the list, but remember to give yourself something to actually grown on- don’t’ just jot down the negative.

What are three things you can change about the grow to make it a glow?

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Identifying your inner critic and letting it go on its way is the first step in silencing it. Often, the self-critic talk starts in childhood and we get so used to the voice that we think it’s just something that’s part of us. We think that it talks the truth and gives us perspective, when in fact, the voice is sabotaging our lives.

To gain power over your self-critic, listen to the powerful words to rid your self-talk of negativity, to silence the critic and achieve a serene place of peace.

TRY IT! 5 DAYS of FREE MEDITATION! Just click here, enter your name & email to get started!

or KEEP READING: Day 5 Banish Procastination

©2017 Taru Nieminen   The Happy Teacher Solution