A Bientot Robert, merci.

by Susy Giddy | Jun 11, 2021

Huh, I thought as I got back into my car after loading my groceries into the trunk. Many of you will know that I love doing the groceries each week and for the past 15 months since the pandemic began, the trip to the grocery store has been, my only trip of the week, well except to get the vaccine or other essential trips. But not as Dr. Strang said the time to go to Costco to buy the sandals that are on sale. Huh, I thought, why do I feel sad? Is this pandemic and its effects NEVER going to end?

Remember back to the whole TP shortage situation? Two items per customer? That was even before we had to wear masks. That was when I tried to buy 3 cans of kitty food for my kitty and one was confiscated and the lady scolded me for taking more than two. I tried so hard to explain in French that my kitty ate a can a day and that we were only supposed to go to the grocery store once a week, I tried so hard to explain it and not cry, I was not successful so I bought a case of twelve and that was somehow OK!( The kitty food confiscating lady did not continue to work at my grocery store and my kitty cat was spared of being hungry) Oh, and Martin wasn’t allowed to come with me into the store because it was one member per family and the aisles had become one-way affairs and I kept going the wrong way. And remember when we didn’t know what six feet apart was? And remember the staff could no longer bag our groceries, that was when I learned about not putting eggs in the bag first or bread. Man, we have been through a lot.

Well, somewhere in there is when Robert appeared. I can’t say that I know what he looks like, being masked and all, he probably has no clue what I look like either. But one day he appeared at the front entrance of the grocery store. Bless his heart, his job was to clean shopping cart handles, and direct customer traffic, that is to say, you can come in, you can leave, wash your hands, wear your mask, and do you have a fever? Oh yes, and do you want a big or little shopping cart and have a great day. Can you imagine? Oh and with the door open and the blustery Quebec winter air blowing in.

One of my first encounters with Robert had to do with my favorite pencil. On account of the pandemic, I am the type of grocery shopper that has a weekly menu, with a carefully made out list and each item gets checked off with my pencil. It all started because of the ketchup, I forgot to buy it for burger night and was not allowed to go back to the store, so I learned to make a list and check it 100 times! The rule was once a week grocery shopping and the fear of floating respiratory droplets made it so you could only go down each aisle once. Plus we were only allowed to touch things once. So, when I dropped my favorite pencil while trying to secure my mask and it rolled under the grocery carts, it was kind of a big deal. Robert leaned down and crawled all around the floor and found my pencil for me. It may sound sort of small, maybe it sounds silly to you. To me, it was such an act of kindness!

Each week he greeted me with a broad smile, well now I don’t actually know that do I? What with a mask and all! Interesting it seemed like a big smile. I always asked him how his week had been, mostly good he would say. Sometimes, he would tell me about customers that did not want to wear a mask, or wash their hands or follow the arrows. They would grumble at him and huff and puff as if he personally was responsible for the health protocols and the Coronavirus.

Each week as I waited my turn to leave the store I would wish him a good week and he would squeeze my arm. And that is it! That was this little connection during a time of deep isolation from family, friends and anything else that was once normal. And so it was that when I entered the store today there was no Robert. Only a sign that said wash your hands and wear a mask. It felt empty. No smile, no greeting no c ya next week. I asked after him at checkout and no one really knows where he is.

And that is how I came to be feeling sad and saying huh when I got back to my car. In all the things of the pandemic, this was a sweet little connection. And this man named Robert stood there for more than a year helping protect us all from the virus. How brave he was, how patient, and he made a difference.

Thank you Robert for all you did and a bientot, my friend!

The Magical Day

by Susy Giddy | Oct 2, 2020

My day started with a text from my little sister, asking me if I would like to go to a Zoom call, at my niece’s school for ” The Blessing of Animal Service”, and would I bring my kitten Corey and my somewhat famous dog Ruffus. Ruffus is our beloved Rescue Dog from Cabarete, famous for his floppy ear and charming, gentlemanly ways. Corey our white and gray, long-haired tabby kitten joined our family a mere six weeks ago, she has stolen our hearts and is currently working on being pals with Ruffus.

Not having any clue what an animal blessing is, I found myself texting back, “sure thing”! I happened to have had a break between Life Coaching Clients at the scheduled time and I wanted to show love and support for my sister and niece.

Tomorrow is the annual Blessing of the Animals service to celebrate the Feast of St. Francis. The service is at 2 p.m. and students and families are welcome to gather their pets and join the virtual service.

“Corey, Ruffus and I are going to a Service for Blessing Animals at 2:00, you wanna join us? ” I call to my husband, Martin. Looking slightly baffled he cheerfully agreed.

While deeply spiritual, both raised in church-going families, as a couple we regularly attend Christmas Eve services every second year, although we consider that to be regular, we are not considered to be mainstream churchgoers, just saying in case you have the impression that we regularly go to service on Thursdays at 2:00 PM.

I did ask Mr. Googly, ( as Pluto would say), about the Feast of St. Francis and found out that the Feast celebrates St. Francis of Assisi, who among other things just happens to have my favorite prayer.

The Prayer of St. Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is dispair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy;  

O Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love.  

For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

So off we went, so to speak, to the Service of Animals Blessing. That is to say, we went from the living room to the other part of the living room, Martin, Corey the kitten, and Ruffus, well Ruffus was already on his blanket, to the Zoom call. And there we saw 100s of participants. Do you know the Zoom Small Box? Well, they were filled with faces, of children and parents, and animals live and stuffed toy animals. Lots of kittens, lots of doggies, I do believe there was a chicken. Beautiful music played, lovely children, read prayers, we seemed to all sing a song and we heard a little chat from, the priest about love, and animals and how we are all creatures of the universe, all deserving love and all deserving to love others. I cuddled Ruffus, held Corey and Martin’s hand ( and I held in my heart the love for all the dearly departed animals that we and others have loved) and tears flowed down my cheeks. I was grateful for this little service, that blessed the animals and each of us. And I thought to myself, I thought I was doing something nice for my sister and niece and look what I received this beautiful gift of peace and love! And then I remembered that famous line from my favorite prayer. “For it is in giving that we receive.”

Susy Giddy is a Certified Life Coach. Her specialty is helping clients get the life they want. She lives in Mont Tremblant Quebec and Cabarete, Dominican Republic She can be reached at susy@cabaretelifecoaching.com

The Wonder of it All

by Susy Giddy | Sep 5, 2020

I am a bit, I am sorry to say Pandemic Weary. It is hard for me to say this, because at the same time, I am so grateful! I am grateful for being healthy, I am grateful for my husband being healthy and all my family being healthy. I am grateful that none of us have suffered from Covid 19 and I am grateful for where I live, and being safe and my dog Ruffus and my kitten Corey. So, I feel bad feeling weary.

The truth is well, I am grateful AND I feel weary, of the uncertainty, the restrictions, the sameness, it is in fact a heavy load that we are all carrying, it makes us weary…..

In this state of weariness I was struck at the sight of our new kitten Corey, she had escaped from the deck to the garden ( that is itself another story) she was perfectly still and quiet ( also another story) dumbstruck as I was by my quiet, still kitten, my gaze traveled upwards to where her gaze was transfixed. There my gray and white, long haired, eleven week old tabby kitten was seeing for the first time in her young life, BIRDS. It was a truly wondrous sight to behold. About six little yellow and gray birds were chirping above her head, it sounded like they were saying ” Kitten alert, kitten alert”! Corey just watched in awe, in wonder. I watched Corey in awe and wonder. I watched as this little kitten watched the birds, as cats have done forever, but for her, it was the first time, it is hard to describe how her wonder at the birds was contagious. I was in wonder watching her watch the birds, and my husband was in wonder watching me watch her watch the birds and Ruffus, well he just wonders why we had to go and get a kitten at all, but that is a different kind of wonder and a different story.

So, I got to wondering, is the antidote to weary, wonder? Is it to look around us, for that spectacular way of seeing the world through new eyes? Is it understanding that we truly live in a world of wonder? Maybe we just have to open our eyes? I don’t know for sure, but one thing I do know for sure is that many of us are Pandemic Weary. We have grown weary of focussing on Covid 19 and social distancing and masks and uncertainty and spending so much time at home and watching Covid numbers. My sense is that if we redirect our focus to wonder we will in fact feel less weary. Maybe if we focus on wonders we will feel better. If focussing on hard stuff makes us weary, it seems like a safe bet, that by focussing on the wondrous stuff we will feel well maybe wonderful? To me, it seems well worth a try.

Reflections Of a White Kid

by Susy Giddy | Jun 16, 2020

Like so many of us, during this time of grieving for the brutal death of George Floyd, I feel compelled to reflect upon my experience both as a White Woman and of my experience growing up as a White Kid. I want to know how did that experience influence, my thoughts and feeling about racism and more importantly, how does it influence any actions I can take to prevent this ever happening again and to help stop racism in its tracks.

I was born in the 1950s to a family in which, my great-great-grandfather was a plantation owner in the South. Some of my earliest memories are of how my great-great-grandmother was so loved by the “her slaves”, that they would not leave when freed. My adult self thinks, what a load of malarky. they couldn’t leave, where were they to go and how would they make their way in life. My beloved grandmother, the granddaughter of the great grandmother slave owner, hissed whenever she heard the name Abraham Lincoln because she had learned all her life, that he was responsible, by Abolishing Slavery, for the downfall of her Mother’s family, for the fact that the once-wealthy plantation owners became poor, and their millions of confederate dollars were as worthless as the paper they were printed on. When we as children recited eeny meeny miny moe catch a Tiger by the toe….my Mother would correct us, and try to replace Tiger with the “N” word, but we three blond-haired, white kids born in the 50s screamed back passionately, that wasn’t fair, it was wrong you can’t say that word the siblings would shout at our Mom.

My memories include things like a summer car vacation, driving across the country, three hot sweaty kids in the back seat of a Plymouth Fury. In Selma Alabama my little brother had to stop for an emergency hospital visit, the race riots were on that summer, and my parents were afraid to stop but my brother had a piece of glass in his eye, it had to come out. But fear was in the car. Did we little kids know how to distinguish betweem fear of the riots and fear of the dark skinned people? I have no clue, honestly.

It seems like Martin Luther King was on the news every night, and my parents cheered for him, they told us how smart he was, and how he would change the world and we wept when he was assassinated.

Many years later, as a Mom myself living in Nova Scotia, I read Lawrence Hill’s compelling Book of Negroes and I cried. My husband and I went to Birchtown, Nova Scotia. When the Loyalists, both white and black arrived in Nova Scotia, in the bitter cold of a Nova Scotian December, the white folks were sent to houses in the village of Shelburne, the newly free black people were sent 10 kilometres away to sleep in trenches covered only by pine branches and boughs. When I saw these on a summer day, I fell to my knees, the injustice of putting people in such a place was overwhelming to me.

Seeing the living conditions that the free men, women and children had to live in made me want to go out and tell this story of injustice to schools and groups, to whoever would listen….but when I volunteered to tell it, I was turned away because of the color of my skin, I don’t even know what to say about that.

And then I spent ten years living in the Dominican Republic. In our adopted Caribbean Island, we made friends that became family. Dominicans are beautiful people inside and out, generous and loving. Dominicans also have beautiful skin of all colors, brown, black, light-dark just beautiful. One day, somehow, while chatting about racism with a yoga friend, I said I didn’t understand racism, because I don’t notice what color people’s skin is I notice how big their hearts are. My friend told me that it was impossible, that I do had to notice….but I don’t think I do. In fact, the other day after George Floyd was murdered, I called a friend to talk about it because I knew we would have a loving conversation, only after he said he was grateful to live in Canada instead of the US, did I realize he has brown skin and how scary this is for him, I don’t know what to say about that either.

I had the privilege this week of hearing the Story of a Black woman about my age, who also grew up in the US in The 50 and 60s. She described some of her experiences growing up as a Black Girl. Once again I was brought to my knees with grief for the injustices she endured growing up at the same time I was growing up a little white girl.

All, I can say is that when even one human hurts, we all hurt. I now know that as a little white girl growing up I was hurting for the little black and brown kids and I didn’t know it!

Be Kind Be Calm Be Safe

by Susy Giddy | May 8, 2020

Be Kind, Be Calm, Be Safe are words that have become something of a mantra to Canadians during this pandemic as we hear these wise words of British Columbia’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry. Each time we hear them, we offered hope instead of despair, faith instead of fear and calm instead of panic.

As I walked into the newly opened garden center this morning, I was greeted with the sight of these beautiful geraniums, row, after beautiful row of color, just exuberating joy. Tears rolled down my cheeks, I felt as though I had come out of a world of black and white during these weeks of the lockdown back into a magnificent world of techno color. Much like that moment in the Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy steps out of Kansas into the Beautiful land of Oz.

It occurred to me at that moment, that we are all carrying a great weight on our shoulders with this pandemic. It is a weight of fear, darkness, frustration, and uncertainty. It also occurred to me that although we are all in the same pandemic, the same storm so to speak, we are not all in the same boat. Some of us are riding this out in luxury like a fancy yacht, other in a more modest motor boat, still others in a leaky canoe,and still others in no boat at all. Yet, for each of us our loss is the worst loss, and so we all are carrying a great weight.

The burden is not always obvious even to ourselves, thus we cry at pretty flowers as I did, maybe we snap at something small, or maybe we lose it altogether for a bit. Each of our loads is different, each of us naviagtes this from our own boat.

As we come to the end of National Mental Health Week, Dr. Henry’s words ring in my ears, Be Kind, Be Calm, Be Safe, to ourselves, to each other, to our communities and to the world.

Susy Giddy is a Certified Life Coach, one of her specialties is helping clients navigate challenging times. She can be reached at susy@cabaretelifecoaching.com

Gratitude in the Time of Covid-19

by Susy Giddy | Apr 22, 2020

As we move through this pandemic, that has us in such uncertain times I am seeing a new phase with others and myself. The phase is that people are getting fed up and overwhelmed. Any newness to self-isolating is wearing off, our homes are clean, organized or not, we have done enough jigsaw puzzles to last a lifetime, or not, and read more books and binged watched more shows than we ever thought possible, or not. In other words, we are reaching our tolerance for this phase.

As well, other life events are occurring that push us emotionally when we have already been pushed farther than we can imagine possible. Some events, like cars breaking down, or noisy neighbors or the coldest, cloudiest, snowiest spring on record ( Like here where I am at the moment) are relatively minor and normally would be taken in stride, but when we have the weight of the pandemic on our shoulders can feel like way too much! Other events, like the mass shooting in Nova Scotia, my native province, in and of themselves boggle the mind, crush the soul and break the heart. And amidst this pandemic, is, well there are no words to describe what it is.

So as I look around, see, and hear others feeling overwhelmed I am reminded of one of the most important pieces of Resiliency. That combination of skills and attitudes that gets us through anything, and I do mean anything. That piece is Gratitude. I know we hear a lot about it these days and maybe you are feeling like it is a bit of an overused term. Gratitude works, it fills our hearts, minds, and bodies with good feelings, it changes our perspective and it allows us to stay in the moment without going down the train track of the future. That is where we all need to stay right now, in the present moment, not worrying about all the what-ifs in front of us but right now this day, this moment.

I am grateful today for the love and heartfelt expression of support for all Nova Scotians. ( This is a shift from focussing solely on the losses). I am grateful that no one in my family has yet to contract Covid 19. ( This is different from focussing on the growing number of cases in my province) I am grateful for this quiet time to be with my husband, it is a special time. (This is different from focussing on all we can’t do.)

Try writing down three things you are grateful for today. Repeat them to yourself throughout the day at least three times.

An attitude of gratitude is a practice and it takes practice. A bit like fitness, you don’t just do it one day and be grateful…..make time every single day and you will notice a lighter heart, a freer step and bit more space for joy, yes even during this time of Covid-19.

Stay Well Stay safe.

Coach Susy

I dedicate this with love to all Nova Scotians.

Bon Courage or Groceries in the Time of Coronavirus

by Susy Giddy | Apr 4, 2020

Ever since I was a little girl, tagging along with my Mum at the Safeway, grocery shopping has been one of my favorite things to do. I love it. In fact, I love everything about it, the planning, getting the cart, the choosing, the colors, it is all like one big beautiful sensory and delicious experience for me. When my husband and I returned from our honeymoon, one of the first things we did was go grocery shopping together, it seemed so romantic, joining our food, our cereal and fruit into one home. He also loves grocery shopping, an endearing trait!

So, my love of grocery shopping has been challenged of late and let me try to tell you why. Starting with, my husband can’t come with me because only one family member is allowed in the store. So I go, feeling a bit like a wartime soldier getting supplies for my family, by myself ONCE a week ( absolutely NO popping out for the extra little, je ne sais quoi that I forgot) it is make do until Thursday all the way. I arrive at my beautiful and beloved Metro supermarket. The first thing I notice is the Surete de Quebec police car monitoring the parking lot, not for robbers but for people out of REGION, those toilet paper hoarders who come from AWAY and try to buy OUR TP. As it happens a car from Ontario pulls in, sees the cop car and has an abrupt change of mind about shopping in our little Quebec Village.

I approach the store, trying to figure out how far is six feet in the lineup, not wanting to get too close or disobey the rules, which as we know are changing by the minute. I am an anglophone living in Quebec, lots of things are mysterious to me anyway, but now, I feel a bit clueless. As I wait in line to be admitted to the store I am trying to read the rules, and stay six feet no two meters apart and not do anything wrong….like going through airport security. Suddenly it is my turn, answering the questions, meaning I have to understand the French and the question. So, no I do not have a fever, I live here in the village, yes I will wash my hands, no I will not talk to anyone, yes I will be courteous to staff, yes I will only touch things once, no I will not socialize in the store, yes, I will stand on the dots on the floor and wash my hands when I leave. Breathe I say to myself. They did NOT say do not use your reusable bags.

Once in, I breathe that same kind of a sigh of relief as one does once through airport security, except I don’t want to breathe too hard and spread “respiratory droplets”, I have my list carefully done, with menus for the week, and thankfully our store is well stocked. I mean there are many signs saying this section closed, like the tasting spots but who cares. I am busy wondering about the two meters and if I am spatially challenged because I can’t figure out how to get carrots, and stay six feet away while the produce man is reloading the carrot supply.

On a side note on my way to the grocery store, I drove by the Liquor store, the SAQ select Quebec’s Provincially Run Deluxe Liquor Store. The line was wrapped around the store, like Toys R Us, at Christmas time. So when I get to the wine aisle of my grocery store, I stare at the selection rather forlornly, before I say to myself, something like “Suck it up Princess” buy the weekly wine, so what if it is not your favorites, just buy it instead of risking standing in line at SAQ.

Continuing on grabbing items, following the touch them only once rule, of course, and not checking the ingredients or price, I think that is against the rules, and besides I am still wondering how to be two meters aways from passing shoppers in six-foot-wide aisles. I am wishing Martin was with me because I figure he would know the answer.

On the kitty food aisle I am stumped, being as that last week my four cans of kitty food were confiscated. The officious cashier seemed to think I was hoarding kitty food at four cans per week, I tried explaining this to my kitty who eats a can a day but so far we have not reached an understanding. So, I quickly choose a case of kitty food hoping this is not confiscated.

My heart stops as a grocery clerk who is coughing and sneezing albeit into her sleeve is chatting with a customer in the bakery department. My head hurts too much by now to figure out how many rules that is breaking and besides I have to navigate a particularly tricky three-way corner in the store, avoiding the coughing chatting clerk and a man coming from the beer aisle and trying to stay two meters apart.

I wanted to get Martin a special lunch, it was back at the Food To Go Section at the front of the store. That would require going back through the store, imagine all the respiratory droplets. “Oh, Sweetie, I say to myself, I just can’t bring you a treat.”

So I start down the dots on the floor, they mark two meters. It gets a little tricky on the actual turning to stand in line at the cash, but it’s all good. I can’t really see the cashier all that clearly, because of the plexi glass protection blockade but I figure I will know when it is my turn.

As soon as the guy in front of me pushes his cart away and the clerk starts washing her hands I know it is my turn. Rather uneventfully, I load the conveyor belt with my items. I smile at the cashier cuz we are not allowed to socialize. I am hurrying because I have to bag my own items since Covid -19 arrived the staff are no longer allowed to bag. Man oh man I think to myself, there is a lot more to this than meets the eye, as I suddenly realize eggs DO Not go in first. By now I am sweating, I feel so much pressure to get all the groceries in the reusable bags before the lady on the dot moves up. I am almost finished when the cat food confiscating clerk two registers away, says Madame, Madame in a stern voice, after a while I figure out I am the Madame in question, shaking her finger at me she says in French no reusable bags, PLASTIC BAGS only. Shamed and fighting back tears, I apologize. Next week I’ll do better I say in my peculiar French.

And my heavy cart full of sloppily packed reusable bags, and I went to the Entry.. which is also the Exit, stopping to wash my hands…… Bon Courage says the Control point lady “Bon Courage a vous” I say.

A heartfelt thank you to all the brave people working to keep our grocery supply strong. Bon Courage to each of you and your families.

All About Resiliency in Uncertain Times

by Susy Giddy | Mar 17, 2020

The crazy uncertainty of these times we are in can quickly become overwhelming, State of Emergency, Financial Chaos, Social Distancing, so much of what has been normal has changed, literally overnight. As we struggle with our new normal, we can experience fear and anxiety, of course, that is well just normal. The goal is to not get stuck in OVERWHELM, but to move through it as quickly as possible to a place of well being. Try this exercise.

Ask your self these three questions:

1. What do I need to STOP doing, in order to foster my well being during this time? I need to stop…………………………………………………………………………..

2. What do I need to START doing, in order to foster my wellbeing during this time? I need to start…………………………………………………………………………………….

3. What do I need to CONTINUE doing to foster my wellbeing during this time? I need to start…………………………………………………………………………………………

Mine looks like this:

1. I need to Stop watching so much news…..
2. I need to Start finding joy in each day……
3. I need to continue, getting enough sleep, exercising, eating well and taking sun baths

Try and see how much this exercise helps you shift your thinking and feeling away from fear and anxiety to a sense of well being!

Stay safe, well and at home.

Coach Susy

Special thanks to Jenn Barley and Karen Sullivan for sharing this technique.

Critic to Champion

by Susy Giddy | Feb 24, 2020

Are you your own worst critic? Or are you your own champion? Or does it depend on the situation? Our minds are constantly chattering at us, day and night, that is what minds do after all. Our thoughts come and go, often in rapid fire succession, and more often without our awareness of them. We are so used to it, we don’t stop to evaluate the accuracy, maybe not even realizing how our thoughts are influencing us,

Inner Critic can be a sneaky little bugger. In fact, often, we are not aware of the exact words of Inner Critic, but it shows up in our behavior, like stalling, ambivalence, frustration. This is because Inner Critic is behind the scenes telling us, we are not good enough, or the idea is ridiculous, or impossible and so on. Add to this equation that often Inner Critic shows up in areas of our lives, where we have had life long vulnerabilities, where Inner Critic has dominated us forever without us even knowing it because we believed Inner Critic. Often, but not always, Inner Critic gets a hold of us in Childhood, when we receive messages from others and they become our Inner Critic Messages.

Let me give you an example. I have a client, let’s call him James. James is a bright, handsome, successful architect. James came to me for help with procrastination. James had a life long habit of putting things off, in fact, he had a long list of unfinished tasks and accompanying frustration. James thought he did not have enough time to do things, never enough time. As we explored the situation. James, remembered a time as a child when he tried to fix his bike, his father told him it was a ” stupid” idea doomed to failure. James took his message on as truth. Unknowingly, each time as he approached a tricky task as an adult, Inner Critic jumped right in, calling him stupid, criticizing each idea as ridiculous until James became paralyzed and tasks lay undone. James had no idea this was going on, he did not recognize the Inner Critic because the Inner Critic had been nattering away at him since Childhood.

The great, great news is the Inner Critic is not actually the boss of us. There is another option, Inner Champion! Inner Champion cheers us on, supports us encourages us and wants the best for us. Inner Champion Believes in us. Inner Champion might sound like a loving parent or a loyal friend. For many of us at first Inner Champion might sound at first like a foreign voice, and that’s OK. As adults, we actually get to choose between the Inner Critic and Inner Champion.

Here are 6 Steps to Choosing Inner Champion:

1. Develop Awareness of Inner Critic. Observe when and where Inner Critic shows up? What does Inner Critic say? Does Inner Critic have a voice? Does Inner Critic come with an emotion an energy a feeling? Does Inner Critic show up in your body? Just observe with a curious mind where is Inner Critic and what are the messages. Hint, Inner critic often uses black and white thinking and ” you” statements. Like ‘You always fail” for example

2. Develop your own Inner Champion. Observe where in your Life Inner Champion shows up. What does she say? What does Inner Champion sound like? Does Inner Champion have a voice? Is the voice familiar? Where does Inner Champion show up in your body? In your emotions in your feelings in your actions. Just observe where and when Inner Champion shows up.

3. Next time you are faced with self-doubt, stalling, frustration check in with yourself to see if Inner Critic is around. Is this a situation where Inner Critic likes to show up? Inner Critic hangs out for lots of people in new, unknown or challenging situations.

4. Identify, what is Inner Critic saying? What are you afraid of that Inner Critic can bully you with? What feeling are you trying to avoid?

5. What if Inner Critic is Wrong? Look for evidence to dispute what Inner Critic is saying.

6. Bring in Inner Champion. What does Inner Champion say? Look for evidence that supports what Inner Champion is saying.

Back to James, once he was aware that Inner Critic was ruling this part of his life, he was able to recruit Inner Champion. The fact is that James is highly capable and more than able to solve many if not all of the tasks he is faced with. He now recognizes that Inner Critic is a bit of a bully and when he is faced with a challenging task, he recruits his Inner Champion, who reassures him that the task can be done, allowing him to focus on how to get the job done.

Remember you get to choose Inner Critic or Inner Champion

Credits To Kickstart Your Edge Inner Circle for Information about the Inner Critic