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ELIZABETH PYJOV
Freedom from the Inner Critic for Lawyers: 10 Reasons to Reduce your Inner Critic( Continued)
8. As you ease the inner critic, your prefrontal cortex – associated with higher order brain functions such as awareness, concentration, and decision-making – becomes thicker. These are the capacities lawyers rely on for strategic thinking, legal reasoning, and sound professional judgment.
9. Your amygdala, the part of your brain largely responsible for freaking out, gets smaller.
10. It ' s the journey toward treating yourself with kindness. This has inherent value.
How to Reduce the Inner Critic: Self- Compassion Is the Solution
Self-compassion is the attitude that“ no matter what, I am going to be on my own side” and“ my value as a human being has nothing to do with anyone’ s approval or disapproval.”
It has been shown to be positively related to psychological success, health, happiness, and well-being.
Self-compassion, as defined by Dr. Kristin Neff, is the practice of relating to oneself with kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness in moments of difficulty or perceived failure.
In the legal profession, this means responding to personal mistakes, setbacks, or high-stress situations with the same understanding and care a lawyer would offer to a valued client or colleague.
The inner critic is a habit of the mind that’ s done a lot of damage. It’ s not objective or helpful. It’ s more of an attack that threatens us. The inner critic leaves no space to feel, no space to breathe, and no space to inquire. Besides, it’ s not that
interesting, if you really look at it.
The legal profession runs on chronic pressure. But, as an ancient African proverb states,“ When there’ s no enemy inside, the enemies outside can’ t hurt you.”
Elizabeth Pyjov, JD MTS is a three times Harvard graduate, law school professor, former Sidley lawyer, and science of the mind expert. She specializes in helping people become self-compassionate and free from the inner critic.
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