WHY Yoga for the Inner Critic

This post is derived from the talk I gave to the Central United Church Congregation this morning in anticipation of next week’s workshop:

What is the inner critic?  It’s:

  • A voice within that criticizes me mercilessly
  • It has an IQ of about 500 that spots all my shortcomings
  • It has an uncanny ability to read my most secret feelings and xray vision to reveal deficiencies that would be invisible to the naked eye
  • It has a standard of comparison that would make Einstein look stupid and Mother Theresa look selfish
  • It ALWAYS finds me falling short of expectations.

(from Drs. Hal and Sidra Stone)

First, you may be thinking to yourself that, if I’m giving this workshop, I must have my inner critic all reigned in and well behaved, right?  Well, not exactly.  But most of the time I notice when the critic is operating and I have a toolbox of strategies to disarm and manage all the critical voices.  It wasn’t always this way.  It took a long time to arrive at this place, but a good part of that happened through my yoga practice and by accident.  So I am very grateful!  As grace would have it, I finally came upon a system of yoga that has worked out most of the discoveries I had came upon and pieced them together into protocols, or repeatable, well-defined practices.  It is from this system (LifeForce Yoga®) that the workshop next Sunday was derived.

Next question:  Why would we, as practicing Christians, care about the inner critic? Frankly, left to their own devices, the inner critic and similar voices can lead us away from God.

Experts in the field recognize that the inner critic causes ANGUISH.  It always is a basic factor in low self-esteem and is a major impediment in any effort to grow and change.  It is involved in anxiety, depression, addiction, sleep issues, chronic pain, and a host of other difficulties.

The ironic part is that the inner critic develops in early childhood to protect us and support those parts of ourselves that are vital to our values and sense of self.  The critical voice is an internalization of the concerns of our parents and others who were important to us.

The problem is that it does not know when to stop or when enough is enough.  For example, I was taught from very early on that being conscientious was of utmost importance, so my critic often yells at me when it thinks I am having too much fun, to the extent that I tend to feel guilty when I’m enjoying myself as I faithfully go about the work I believe God has called me to do!  “Oh my goodness, you’re having too much fun!”  So I get all conscientious and then it’s, “Hey, you could stand to lighten up and have some fun.”  With the inner critic, you just can’t win!  In short, the critic increasingly tends to undermine us and do real damage.

You might be wondering whether this voice is a conscience, the voice of God.  I really don’t think so.  Why not?  Because Jesus says in John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”  To me, the inner critic sounds much like the thief, and I believe that God is loving and merciful, and wants us to live wholeheartedly, not unhappy, frightened, constricted and ineffective.

So why will this yoga workshop help to deal with the inner critic?  In answer to that, therapists know that one of the most difficult things about managing the inner critic is recognizing that one is at work in the first place, and to correctly identify it as such.  Yoga and its counterpart, meditation, by definition help us to become more aware, take us out of our normal patterns and allow us to see a little differently.

Secondly, research increasingly reveals that many of our most formative experiences happened before we had language, or at some point during which we were under such stress that we were operating at a survival level that isn’t accessible through intellect.  Those situations are not stored in chronological memory.  Often they come to the fore when something happening now inadvertently reminds us in some highly visceral, felt-sense kind of way.  “The issues are in the tissues,” as they say.  Yoga allows us to spend compassionate time in our bodies and be aware and that effectively takes us out of the past, out of the future and into the now, where we have access to the deeper states that our inner critic is trying to protect.

Thirdly, we don’t want to just avoid, suppress or overpower the inner critic because it’s been shown that approach simply strengthens it.  Richard Rohr, Franciscan friar and inspirational speaker, says that pain that isn’t transformed is transmitted; that is, if we don’t integrate and use our pain for good, we transmit it back manifold to ourselves and the world.  In the workshop we will practice yogic techniques that will help us to befriend our critics so that our most pure nature and calling can shine forth and we can be strengthened in service toward God’s will.

Do I need to be super-fit, overly flexible, or experienced in yoga to benefit from this workshop?  Absolutely not.  We will be moving and embodied, but the program is designed to be enjoyed by anyone.  Bring yourself and your open mind and heart.  I look forward to seeing you next Sunday!

Permanent link to this article: https://yoginsight.com/why-yoga-for-the-inner-critic/

WORKSHOP: Inner Critic at Central United Church Sun, Nov 3 1-4 PM

Yoga for Your Inner Critic

Founded on LifeForce Yoga®

inner critic heartThe critical voices can look like gremlins and saboteurs, manipulating and taking control without your even knowing what they’re about.

For more about why you might care to attend, click here.

This engaging, multifaceted 3-hour yoga-for-beginners workshop will arm you with a toolbox of strategies for meeting your critic and responding in an effective, yet compassionate manner.

With Lonnie DeSorcy, Certified Yoga Therapist and Spiritual Director

Sunday, November 3rd   – 1 – 4 PM

Central United Church, 131 7th Ave SW    In the Gymnasium

Cost: $15 per person

To sign up visit the Resource Centre or call the office at 403-269-3701

Permanent link to this article: https://yoginsight.com/workshop-inner-critic-at-central-united-church-sun-nov-3-1-4-pm/

Why Yoga, and why Yoga with Lonnie?

I have a problem with the word yoga.  I have considered calling what I do by another name because when the word yoga is uttered I never know for sure what it connotes for the person with whom I am speaking.

Yoga is not just stretching, not just hot, or flow, or hatha, or zen or deep breathing or Lululemon clothing, or brass Hanuman statues.  Nor is it simply chanting “Om,” burning incense or eating vegan or sitting in Lotus pose or meditating or trendy or balancing one one’s head or doing a million downward dogs. Or even a combination of these things.

I hate to try to define yoga because it has meant so much to me.

Although I first tried yoga in a Catholic high school gym class option more than thirty years ago, it has been over the last twenty that I have consistently had a sadhana, or practice.  Over that time I have contemplated giving it up once or twice (after all, there are infinitely more profitable ways to make a living, and there are infinitely more agile physical yogis than me, and a million other petty criticisms that run through my monkey mind when I let it get control of me – the management of which being but one motivator for my yoga and meditation practice . . . ).  Each time, a day or two later, I found something compelling enough about the spirit and practice of yoga to not let it go. To say that it has saved my life would not be an overstatement.  At times, it has been my life.  It keeps my life afloat.  It has informed pretty much everything I do and forms a good part of the foundation for the courage I have managed to muster to do many things that I formerly never would have considered.

My yoga mat is a refuge, but also a laboratory for my life.  Bringing yogic attitudes of acceptance and patience and and ease and awareness and curiousity and zeal and renunciation and beginner’s mind, I can make mistakes on my mat and they are very unlikely to harm.  And I can see what I am all about, warts and all.  I, minute-by-minute, pose-by-pose, breath-by-breath and practice-to-practice, cultivate self-love for this very human human being.  I see patterns in how my body moves (or doesn’t) and make conscious decisions to be with whatever I find.  I can decide to embark on a path to which I am called, do my best, and then try to let go of the results, or to take equal responsibility for not choosing that path. I more clearly see where my anger or my fear or my lack of humility will take me if I bury it or allow it to randomly take control.   Yoga has given fresh meaning to the religious tenets with which I was raised and has deepened my faith immeasurably. And with continued practice, the perspectives and attitudes and behavioural habits become more me, accessible in my daily life.  I personally witnessed neuroplasticity in myself before it was a buzzword!

Am I perfect?  Absolutely not, in any way, shape, or form, except in my human fraility and fallibility.  But somehow, my practice of yoga and all it brings with it has made that all okay.

And when I teach or mentor, I share with others this very authentic, wholesome, gritty way of approaching life.  I can’t help but have yoga inform what I do or how I am in the world.  My students’ and clients’ very essence enriches me.  It is of utmost urgency and importance therefore that mine enriches them in turn, hence my passion for learning and integrating and living my yoga.

Since 1998 or so I have spent countless hours and dollars pursuing training in so many different aspects of this endeavor called yoga. Some of the training has not been in what many would think of as yoga (insight / vipassana meditation, Ignatian Spirituality, health coaching, and spiritual direction all count, in my mind, as yoga, since, taken with a yogic attitude, they have the ultimate effect of revealing Truth and uniting together body, mind and soul with the Oneness that is).  And then there is all the time I have spent practicing when I could have been doing something else – maybe amassing a fortune, developing a whopping case of heart disease or becoming an alcoholic (only just kind of kidding. . . my life has had its share of joys and sorrows and many losses and a crazy family health history, so who knows what might have happened without yoga?).

You could call my yoga a vocation or a calling.  The truth of the matter is that I want to share it with everyone who has a sincere desire to explore it with me.

So, when I teach yoga, I teach like I practice. A class may not always be a flowing experience or be held in a swank physical environment (although I do try to impart these qualities to a class). Nor will it be a fashion show of the lastest yoga gear.  Rest assured that I could provide these more material, commercial aspects if I thought those were the most important (I have a business degree, after all).  This yoga is not about getting a great workout (although you might!) or chilling in a blissful state (a possible by-product), but does intend to give you the opportunity and the tools to hang out with yourself and others, try some new things and/or some new perspectives, stretch your limits a little or a lot, strengthen and encourage yourself and yet still keep soft edges.  What it will be is real, intimate, and human, and informed by the work of master teachers, scientific researchers, mounds of personal experimentation and insight, and infused with passion and love. My aim is for you to be armed and ready to embark upon your own love affair with yoga, at class and at home.  I truly have the best interests of fellow yogis in mind.

Does this answer Why Yoga?  And why yoga with Lonnie?  I hope so.  If not, please contact me and I would love to delve deeper with you.

Permanent link to this article: https://yoginsight.com/why-yoga-and-why-yoga-with-lonnie/