Flipping doubts into affirmations

Tackling our inner critic in Week 1 of the The Artist’s Way

Since we’re tackling our inner critic in Week 1, the book suggests writing down the sentence:

I, _______, am a brilliant and prolific __________.

(So, for me, this was: I, Shweta Suresh, am a brilliant and prolific writer).

Do it ten times and observe what your brain does, and then write that down too.

It’s funny how pretty much immediately, my brain started pushing back on the statement and raising a lot of serious concerns:

Ummm… you haven’t really written anything to qualify as a writer

I mean, do you really even know what prolific means…

Do you really think you’re brilliant?

The plan is then to take these doubts and flip them on their head. Turning them into affirmations.

For me, this meant reassuring myself that:

I’m smart and insightful

I have lots of interesting ideas

People want to hear my ideas

Things that were hard for me to write but I felt a little lighter accepting that these were the root of my insecurities.

You repeat these affirmations to yourself every day to start accepting them and building them into your psyche.

Let me know if you give them a try!