How To Use Psychology and Buddhism To Handle Your Inner Critic | Amita Schmidt

Overview

This episode explores the integration of psychology and spirituality to address the inner critic and other challenging aspects of the mind. Amita Schmidt, a Buddhist meditation teacher and licensed psychotherapist, shares insights from Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy and Buddhist meditation. Topics include working with the inner critic, accessing a wiser self, transitioning from psychological healing to spiritual insight, and cultivating acceptance and awareness.

Notable Quotes

- Your inner critic isn’t you. It’s just a part with a job, and often, it’s the opposite of what it seems—it’s trying to protect you. – Amita Schmidt, on reframing the inner critic.

- Depression felt so solid for 20 years, but then I saw it was empty—just energy and thoughts. It unhooked like a caboose from a train. – Amita Schmidt, on her pivotal insight.

- Your mind is the original AI. Treat it like Siri—don’t take it so seriously. – Amita Schmidt, on gaining perspective on mental chatter.

🧠 The Basics of Internal Family Systems (IFS)

- IFS views the mind as an inner family of parts, including the inner critic, each with its own role.

- The goal is self-leadership, where the wise self (capital S Self) leads rather than being dominated by reactive parts.

- The wise self embodies qualities like compassion, curiosity, and calmness, helping to mediate between conflicting parts.

- Practical tools include dialoguing with parts to understand their fears and motivations, often revealing protective intentions beneath critical behaviors.

🌌 Moving from Psychology to Spirituality

- Psychological healing involves addressing pain and tension with compassion, creating safety in the mind and body.

- Spiritual insight goes deeper, questioning the very nature of the self and exploring the illusion of a fixed identity.

- Awareness, described as the canvas on which thoughts and emotions arise, is a constant presence beneath mental noise.

- This shift helps depersonalize struggles, making them less monolithic and more workable.

🗣️ Befriending the Inner Critic

- The inner critic is often demonized but can be reframed as a protector part that learned its role to keep us safe.

- Social media amplifies self-criticism by fueling comparison and self-doubt.

- Techniques to work with the inner critic:

- Labeling: Simply naming the inner critic creates distance and activates the brain’s reasoning centers.

- Compassionate inquiry: Ask the critic, What are you afraid of? to uncover its protective intentions.

- Accessing the wise self: Use tools like imagining your older, wiser self or asking, What would the Buddha do?

🌌 Awareness as the Ultimate Tool

- Awareness is the movie screen on which the mind’s drama plays out. Recognizing this can dissolve the power of thoughts like the inner critic.

- Practical exercises to access awareness:

- Big Sky Mind: Envision your mind as vast and spacious, like the sky.

- Airplane Hangar Analogy: Imagine your inner critic as a couch in a massive hangar—still present but no longer overwhelming.

- Awareness allows thoughts to arise and pass without resistance, creating space and freedom.

🤲 The Power of Acceptance and Surrender

- Acceptance softens resistance and allows difficult patterns to dissolve naturally.

- Amita’s personal breakthrough came after surrendering to the possibility of living with depression, which led to a profound insight and lasting freedom.

- Acceptance is not passive but an active willingness to be present with what is, fostering transformation.