ABSTRACT
World-renowned neuroscientist Dr R. J. Davidson's research confirms health professionals can rewire and build a healthier thinking style at any stage in their life. Among the unhealthiest thoughts people carry are those of self-doubt and self-depreciation. The inner critic almost always needs taming. Humans have the unique ability to use rich and complex language to contemplate and communicate. The inner critic critiques randomly and ruthlessly, where everything is defined and interpreted with pessimism and negativity. Most people who struggle to think confidently are too critical of themselves and practise what psychologists call negative self-talk. Another way to look at this is by seeing unhelpful and irrational thoughts as inner critics. A child-friendly term for cognitive distortion is ‘volcanic thinking’. When too much faith is placed upon the inner critic, volcanic thinking forms part of the negative attribution bias students and teachers are likely to experience when they are feeling stressed, anxious or overwhelmed.
