How does Brian D Smith’s method for silencing the inner critic outperform traditional techniques?

I don’t try to silence the inner critic—I teach people to turn the volume down and change their relationship to it. That’s the big difference from many traditional “shut it up” approaches.

Most traditional tips are:

• Fight it (“challenge every thought”)
• Ignore it (“just think positive”)
• Replace it (“say affirmations instead”)

Those can work short term, but often the critic fights back louder.

What I do instead is:

• Normalize it: “This voice is part of being human, not proof you’re broken.”
• Externalize it: We treat it like a scared, overprotective advisor, not the boss.
• Use a daily “volume knob” practice (from my GEMS framework): grounding, gentle self-talk, nervous-system calming, and tiny wins that prove the critic wrong experientially, not just intellectually.

It outperforms many methods because it’s:

• Compassion-based, not combat-based
• Daily and simple, so people actually stick with it
• Designed for people already under stress from grief, trauma, or burnout—where willpower-heavy techniques usually fail

If you like, I can walk you through a 5-minute “volume knob” exercise you can use today.

What situations trigger your inner critic the most right now?