Managing Your Saboteurs
We all have an inner voice, the constant stream of thoughts, judgments, and interpretations that colour our daily experience. Sometimes it uplifts us, and sometimes it tears us down. Understanding this inner dialogue is key to emotional freedom and self-confidence.
Within each of us, there are two distinct inner voices: the limiting voice and the empowering voice.
The Limiting Voice — Your Inner Critic
This voice comes from the limbic region of the brain, particularly the amygdala, which governs our survival instincts. It’s driven by fear and protection, showing up as anxiety, stress, shame, guilt, blame, or regret.
This is your inner critic, also known as the saboteur, gremlin, or negative mind. It tries to keep you safe by preventing mistakes, rejection, or failure, but often ends up keeping you small, disconnected, and afraid to take risks.
The Empowering Voice — Your Inner Sage
The second voice originates in the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for creativity, calm, empathy, and higher thinking. This is your Sage voice. It’s the source of curiosity, gratitude, peace, and inner wisdom.
When you connect with this part of yourself, you act from clarity rather than fear. You trust your intuition, see challenges as opportunities, and create from a grounded, confident place.
Getting to Know Your Saboteur
Awareness is the first step to change. Try journaling with these reflection questions:
What triggers this saboteur?
What was it originally designed to protect me from?
What lies does it tell me most often?
How does it make me feel or behave?
What might it need to feel safe to relax?
What new, empowered thought could replace its lies?
By meeting your saboteur with curiosity rather than judgment, you begin to dissolve its grip and open the door to your inner Sage.
3 Steps to Manage Your Inner Critic
1. Awareness
Notice when the inner critic is active. Your main saboteur is usually the Judge, constantly evaluating you, others, or situations. Simply naming it begins to weaken its hold.
2. Detach
Let it speak for a moment, then label it for what it is: “My Saboteur says I’ll fail.”
This subtle shift helps you step back, reclaiming power from the voice of fear.
3. Switch to the Empowering Voice
Now bring your focus to the present moment, what’s called a Positive Intelligence (PQ) rep.
Pay attention to a physical sensation for two minutes: your breath, your heartbeat, or the feeling of your fingertips touching. This calms the survival brain and strengthens your Sage.
When the critic returns, repeat the process gently. You can even name it playfully (“The Perfectionist” or “The Drama Queen”) to take away its seriousness.
Then, reframe the thought using the 10% rule, find the part that’s not true and replace it with a deeper truth:
“The truth is, I’m capable and learning.”
“My desire is to feel calm under pressure.”
“I allow myself to believe I can handle this with ease.”
These simple yet powerful statements retrain your brain to speak from compassion and self-trust rather than fear.
Final Thoughts
Your inner critic isn’t the enemy; it’s a misguided protector that learned fear long ago. By listening with awareness, detaching with kindness, and choosing your empowering voice, you begin to build true positive intelligence.
Over time, your Sage becomes louder than your saboteur, and your inner dialogue becomes a source of encouragement, creativity, and peace.
