I, without a shadow of a doubt, believe that our inner critic will never leave us until the day we die. Even if it mystically did live on I bet you the critic could say, "Well you died in a quite boring way didn't you; why couldn't you have gone out like Russell Crowe in 'Gladiator'? Or Slim Pickens in 'Dr. Strangelove'?

It seems like we -- or at least, part of us-- are our own worst enemy. One of the many voices in our head will always criticize and judge us on what we do or what we say in varying degrees; basically our entire existence. For some, this voice is nothing more than a pest that can be squashed by the heel of you boot; and for others, the voice can be a bully that hinders us from doing what we really want to do in life. But, what would happen if we lost our inner critic?

Well, there could be some use to that voice when it comes to everyday tasks. Sometimes, our overthinking could actually cause us to re-read or re-check our work, albeit perhaps a little too much, but doing so can lead us to catch any errors or potential mistakes. Perhaps our inner critic can give us a new perspective on a situation we have been through, for better or worse.

Lately, my inner critic has not been the nicest voice to hear. Perhaps it comes from having anxiety, or perhaps I was born with it or internalized that voice over time; this has caused me to approach life with trepidation. It's important to note that I have learned about a practice in psychology and mental health; it involves talking to yourself in a more compassionate way, as you would a friend. I still have a long road ahead of me, but I'll do my best to enjoy the ride.

So I guess we can think of our inner critics through a more philosophical point of view. Are our inner critics shaped by our environment, or are they simply part of our set personality? Will our critics really go away even after years of compassionate thinking? Like I said earlier, I really don't think our inner critic will go away forever, and neither will anxiety or any mental health concern for that matter.

As much as we wish that the annoying voices in our heads would go away, they won't always obey. What we can do is try to treat these concerns through a variety of methods and stick to them as much as we can. Optimistically-speaking we can actually learn a lot about ourselves though what our inner critics have to say. It may not sound useful or comfortable at first, but the critic helps us understand how we treat ourselves on the inside. Hopefully we all find a method that helps us keep our critics in check when they're not being the nicest to us, so that we can finally start down the road to success again.