5 steps to neutering your critical vampire

By Lori Hammond

Coach and Professional Hypnotist. Giving you simple tools to stop overwhelm and harness joyful forward momentum.

This week's cheat sheet is signed by me, but full credit for this valuable technique goes to my colleague, Derry Cooke.

Derry gave me permission to share this and asked for no credit but I really want you to follow him because he's freaking amazing. 

A few months ago Derry shared a brilliant technique in my 3-Day Video Challenge.  

I'm going to give you a play-by-play of his video because I care about you and I don't want you to miss out. 

Have you ever said, "Affirmations don't work for me"?

The reason they don't work is that the moment you make an affirmation, your inner critic wants to prove you wrong.

It often happens outside of our conscious awareness.

When our "Inner Critic" is louder and more persistent than our affirmation, the critic wins.  

If I could show you a simple process that silences the inner critic, would you be interested?

This process let's you launder your affirmations.

STEP 1

Decide what negative affirmation you're ready to release.

Example: Maybe you tell yourself, "I'm too scared to get out of my comfort zone. What if people make fun of me?" 

STEP 2

Ask yourself, "How do I WANT to feel instead?" 

It's really important to answer this in the positive, present tense and include your name.  

Don't say "I'm not scared" or "I'm fearless." (Because "fearless" has the word fear in it and still makes you think of fear.)

Instead say, "I, __________, am courageous and bold."

Derry says, "Keep your affirmations short so you don't lose interest in yourself." 

The unconscious mind loves simplicity. The less words you use, the more effective.  

STEP 3

Get a piece of paper and 2 different colored pens or a pen and pencil.

Choose which pen is #1 and which is #2.

It's really important to physically hand write this. Not just think it or type it because it gives you better access to your unconscious mind.

Now write your affirmation with pen #1. 

STEP 4

Listen for and invite your inner critic to reply.

We're not used to consciously noticing our self talk so you may have to pretend to know what the inner critic says.

Pretending works just as well. 

Your inner critic may simply say, "No you're not."

STEP 5

Write this response with pen #2. 

This could go back and forth for hours so here's the one critical rule. 

Each response has to be different. 

Write the affirmation again with pen #1.

Listen for a new response. 

Derry's example was, "Are you F%*@ing kidding me?"

Then, write the affirmation again with pen #1. 

"Yeah but what about that one time you chickened out?" - with pen #2.

You may just get a few critical responses or you may fill both sides of a sheet of paper.

Eventually the inner critic is going to get bored and fail to come up with any original, creative responses and will just give up.  

You'll know this has happened because you'll write the affirmation...

wait for the critical response...

and you just get nothing.

Sometimes you might hear the formerly critical voice say, "Yes you are" and you can keep going back and forth to get all kinds of positive reinforcement.

Now the voice says, "Remember that one time you were courageous?"

This is so powerful because it clears unconscious resistance and allows your affirmations to transform your behaviors and beliefs.

Sometimes, just like doing laundry, your affirmations may get cloudy again and you can repeat this exercise and re-launder your affirmations. 

Please try this and share it with others.

Derry says there's no need to give him credit and you can call it whatever you want. Derry suggests the option of calling it...

"Neutering Your Critical Vampire"

I hope you love this tip as much as I did. 

And if you did my 3-day video challenge, thank you for being bold and courageous! 

I learned so much from each and every one of you and I'm so grateful we all got to bond in such a special way. 

Have a beautiful week, my friend. 

Love,

Lori