23-181 Transform Your Self Talk #6

The Mandala Lady, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Today’s Mandala Message: Invoke Your Inner Coach

This week I’m working through Principle #32 from Jack Canfield’s “The Success Principles” entitled “Transform Your Inner Critic into an Inner Coach”. I set my intention today to ponder the idea of firing up my inner coach. Canfield suggests: “One of the most powerful exercises for retraining our inner critic is to teach it to tell you the total truth. … Most self-criticism and self-judgment is motivated by love. Part of you is trying to motivate the rest of you to do something for your own good. … The problem is that it tells you only part of the truth.”

He offers a 4-step approach where you take a self-judgement statement and restate it from the perspective of anger, fear, requests, and then love. Since I related to one of his examples, I thought I’d share the gist of it here:

  • Self-Judgement Statement: You’re gaining too much weight
  • Anger: I am angry at you for not taking better care of your body
  • Fear: If you don’t change, I am afraid you are going to keep gaining weight until you are facing a real health risk
  • Requests: I want you to join a health club and go at least three days a week
  • Love: I love you. I want you to be around for a long time. You deserve to feel good in your body and about yourself.

A good mindfulness practice would be to truthfully transform self-critical thoughts.

So how about you? Are you open to going beneath the surface of your self-critical thoughts? What would be the anger and fear behind them? What would be the request and the love thought?

“That inner voice
has both gentleness and clarity.
So to get to authenticity,
you really keep going
down to the bone,
to the honesty,
and the inevitability
of something.”

— Meredith Monk

Blessings,

Maureen
The Mandala Lady
All Things Mandalas

An Invitation

I invite you to color along with me this year as part of what I’m calling “The Year of Self-Exploration and Expansion” with all of my “Mandalas of the ___” (day, week, month, year). If you’re interested in more of a self-exploration approach to coloring, check out my “Coloring Mandalas as Meditation”. You can download this mandala at MandalaoftheWeek.com.

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Published by The Mandala Lady

My Mission: connecting with our Inner Light in delightful, inspiring ways For me, creating mandalas is more than just coloring pretty patterns in a circle. I do it because my spiritual evolution and creativity require it of me. My mandala designs come about within an active meditative state, connected with my higher self, my spiritual guides and nature spirits. Together, we bring into form, mandala art the allows me to re-connect with my own inner peace and joy, letting me explore and expand my own creative spirit to however far and in whatever direction I want to take it. As part of my own spiritual journey, I encourage, and hopefully inspire, others to explore their own creativity, to help them re-connect with their own inner peace and joy. As a means to that end, I make all of my mandalas available for people to color. Why should I have all the fun?

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