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Medicine Pouch
Practices to feel more at home in our bodies and our world
I have developed tools and techniques over decades that have helped me and so many others. My experience has taught me that connecting to the wisdom of our bodies is key to the personal, organizational, and societal transformation we desire and is often what is missing in our daily lives and in our work towards collective liberation. When our bodies get free, we all get free.
The practices can be used daily or as needed when you find yourself in conflict or out of balance.
We will be adding new practices each month, so be sure to check back. You can also subscribe to our newsletter for the latest additions.
Embrace your inner critic
The Practice
Step One: Draw your own inner critic
List in bubbles all the messages they have to say.
Step Two: Engage & Reflect
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Imagine yourself saying them to someone you love.
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Are there instances when those things aren’t true?
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How can you apply love to these parts of yourself?
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What can you learn from this practice?
At least once a year, I like to get out my crayons and play, especially around my birthday. I like to delve into the world of my Inner Critic. You know the world I am talking about. That little voice inside our heads that narrates everything. My Inner Critic is often brutal. She begins the minute my eyes open. She has a lot to say about my lack of value, lack of worth, why bother. We have more than 50-60,000 thoughts a day. Most of which are repetitive. When I am stuck, it is often that I have been secretly listening to her, repeating her mantra.
This practice of drawing my inner critic allows me to amplify and then analyze her messages. Most of the messages are part of her basic repertoire, and sometimes new ones come and old ones go. I drew her just to see all the things she said. I realized in time, she mostly repeated the same things over and over to me. And when I engaged my friends to draw their Inner Critic, we realized she is not even creative at all. There are really just three or four sentences that she likes to repeat over and over again about our lack of worth, about our lack of lovability, whatever it happens to be for you. I found great value in writing it down, drawing her out, and looking at her.
Over time, I watched her get the love she needed. I intentionally chose not to push her away, but rather pull her into me and loving her, letting her know that she is lovable, she is worthy, and she has value. We have been taught to divy up life into good or bad, taught to reject or push away our Inner Critic as something that is bad that lives within us. But I have found this only makes her get louder. Our Inner Critics quiet when we learn to love them.
We all have a deep need to be loved and accepted for exactly who we are, and when we realize there are parts of us that are dark, that we do have a shadow side, we can love and embrace that part of ourselves as well. There will not be any need to act out. We can give our Inner Critics a voice and love on them. We can say, I see you are being especially brutal to yourself today. What do you need?