Halloween 2024 • The Inner Critic

My dear friends Cinnamon and Andrew throw a wonderful theme party every year. This year's theme was Monster Mash.

Nothing tells the story better and faster than this 42-second short: 

Video cropped or odd? Click here to watch on YouTube >>

(Or heck, click the link and watch it on YouTube a couple of times to help stoke the algorithm.)

With ENVISION this month, and Befriend Your Brain beginning Friday, I didn't have a lot of mental bandwidth for my costume idea.

But I already had the perfect costume.

Was is at ENVISION 2023 that this monster showed up at the start of Day 2? Sheesh, 2022?!

Months/years ago, I made this Inner Critic costume to make a series of short videos. 

Had a blast making the headdress. 

Have I made any videos wearing it? 

No. 

I am a champ at starting a ton of projects, and certainly not completing all of them. 

Instead of letting my own inner critic beat me down, I have always figured it is better to have too many ideas —  with plenty hanging around incomplete — than have no ideas.

But there are a lot of unfinished projects around here.

A good old deadline of a party got the costume completed and out into the world.

So I toddled off to the party with inventory sheets on my clipboard. 

Look, I am not the type to yuck anyone's wow. Shoving the inner critic in someone's face is a buzzkill... 

Here is what happened at the party.

My giant head scribble immediately caught people's attention. (I was also very aware of the "airspace" I took up.) 

I mean... it is ✨magnificent.✨ 

When someone asked me what I was, I said, "I am the noise in your head."

Then revealed what was on my clipboard: Inner Critic Inventory. 

One of two things happened next: 

1. The person recoiled, saying that their inner critic says ALL of those things. ALL of the time. 
   OR
2. They leaned in, curious.
   
   

I fully accepted either response. 

For those who leaned in, I invited them to choose their inner critic's Top 2 and to fill in the inventory. 

When they handed back the clipboard, I would say, "Great. Now it is here." [ tapping on the paper ]

"No need to keep it in your head anymore."

My friend Chris won for immediately grabbing the clipboard ready to rock the task. 💜

Yes, I am such a nerd for visual thinking that I stealthily snuck it into the Halloween Party.

This dovetails beautifully into what we will cover in Session 2 of Befriend Your Brain: Emotions + Flexibility. 

Session 2 | Emotions + Flexibility | November 8

(What a segue, huh?)

Our Inner Critic traps us into very rigid patterns.  And we are prone to "fossilizing" into a limited set of acceptable emotions. 

Wearing the mask of being okay to positive to the wider world. Meanwhile, the inner critic is grinding us down on the inside.

You can shush the Inner Critic.

You can look at old patterns with new eyes.

All four sessions of Befriend Your Brain I'll be teaching hands-on repeatable tools to break crappy old patterns and create healthier ones.

If your inner voice could use an attitude adjustment, join me.