I am mindful of what my inner critic is saying to me and how I choose to feel.

Write down what the critic actually says, verbatim, for a week. Most people are surprised by how small the repertoire turns out to be. Four accusations, maybe five, recycled since roughly the age of eleven and never once updated with new material.

A critic with five things to say is a much less impressive opponent than an unnamed dread. Naming does most of the work: *that's the lazy one again*, at four in the afternoon, on a Thursday.

You don't get to choose whether it speaks. You do get some say in whether it is treated as a witness or as a heckler, and those two get very different amounts of the room.