I love it when a book comes into my life at exactly the right moment – just when I need to read it. Has that ever happened to you? This week’s selection was that book for me. It’s called, Big Fat Lies Women Tell Themselves: Ditch Your Inner Critic and Wake Up Your Inner Superstar, and it’s written by the fabulous Amy Ahlers!

Have you ever taken a moment to notice how you talk to yourself? Chances are, it’s not always positive, loving, and kind – right? Actually, if you’re anything like me, it goes a little something like this: “Push harder. Do more. That’s not good enough.” And my actions for how I treat myself are even worse – working around the clock, never taking days off, pushing myself harder and harder, not making time for self care…

So many of us tend to put everything else – everyone else – ahead of ourselves. And when we do finally sit down for some much-needed self care, our darn inner critic starts spouting off and telling us all sorts of lies. It’s no wonder why we’re always running and keeping busy and pushing ourselves to the bottom of the to-do list. It’s not fun to hear this criticizing voice, is it?

Amy has really touched on a nerve in her book: our inner critics are running so rampant that it’s become an epidemic. It’s our duty to reign them in, embrace them with our inner wisdom, find the cause of why they are saying what they are saying, and then replace this complete nonsense with truth, loving affirmations, and self love.

How do we do this? The first step is to go through Amy’s book and find out which lies you have been telling yourself. There are 59 of them, and boy are they eye opening!

Here are some of the lies my inner critic has been telling me for years:

• I am not enough (p. 21).
• If it weren’t for me, nothing would ever get done (p. 35).
  
• When I get _____, then I’ll be happy (p. 53).
  
• The only way I’ll ever get anywhere is with hard work (p. 95).
  
• If I allow myself to celebrate, the other shoe will drop (p. 103).
  
• I had better be perfect (p. 168).
  
• I have to suffer in order to grow (p. 195).

Do any of these sound familiar? We can all be so hard on ourselves, and bringing these lies to the light is the first step in becoming our best selves – our most loving selves.

What I love about Amy’s book, is that she exposes the lies (every single one of them) for what they really are: lies. Period. None of them are true. Most of them started when we were young – they were unconscious. And for one reason or another (they were comfortable, we were getting some sort of payoff from them, we simply weren’t aware that life could be any different, etc.), they stuck. But guess what? Now that you are conscious of them, you can choose to rid yourself of them forever – one by one!

In her book, Amy gives us tools to replace our inner lies (through examples, exercises, and affirmations) with inner wisdom, and in doing so, helps us awaken our inner superstar – the part of us that cheers us on, loves us unconditionally, and knows how wonderful we always are! Now that’s definitely something to cheer about!

Here is a clip of Amy talking about her book and why it’s essential reading for all of us!

If you are fed up with your inner critic and are ready to embrace your inner wisdom, this book is definitely a wonderful place to start! I have begun this process, and I know that simply by exposing these lies, I am gaining so much awareness about how I work. And through awareness comes change.

If you do order the book, please stop by and list which lies are on overdrive in your head.  Let’s all join together and rid ourselves of these lies for good! The world needs more self-realized, strong, grounded, women filled with self love and a deep inner knowing! I definitely think we can all bring that to the table! Thank you, Amy, for starting this conversation and really bringing this issue to the light. And thank you to all of us for being willing to make lasting changes – to love ourselves enough to know that these lies are no longer okay. It’s time to say goodbye to our inner critics and let our inner superstars come out and soar!

P.S. – In the interest of full disclosure, I received a review copy from Amy’s publisher, New World Library. However, I only review products that I absolutely adore, and Amy’s book is definitely in that category!

To learn more about Amy Ahlers, please visit her at: http://www.wakeupcallcoaching.com.

Be sure to read Amy’s Shared Wisdom guest post here!