Phase 2: Starting Your Shift
What is the issue?
The Under Water Sea Witch is your inner critic. This voice comes from the depths, criticizing your every move. It undermines your confidence and can pull you off course.
Sea witches appear in maritime folklore across many cultures. They're often depicted as powerful beings with both human and marine features. In stories, they control the ocean and marine life, sometimes helping sailors and sometimes hindering them. The sea witch symbolizes the unpredictable nature of the sea itself.
Your personal Sea Witch acts like these mythical creatures. It tries to control your actions and thoughts, especially around weight loss. It may seem to offer help, but often creates storms of self-doubt instead. Further, the Sea Witch exists in your Below Water mind. It lurks below your awareness so it’s easy to be confused about what is and is not true, and what is and is not meaningful.
What do you think?
Reflect on your own experiences with your inner critic, or Sea Witch:
When has a critical inner voice derailed your weight loss efforts?
How does this voice typically speak to you?
In what situations is this voice loudest?
Write your thoughts in your Captain's Log. This reflection helps identify your own Sea Witch.
What else would be good to know?
Understanding the Sea Witch is crucial for your weight loss journey:
Nature: Your Sea Witch isn't your enemy. It's a misguided protector that developed to keep you safe. Its methods are often outdated and counterproductive.
Common forms:
All-or-nothing thinking
Catastrophizing
Negative self-labeling
Unfavourable self-comparison
Discounting positive
Impact on weight loss:
Decreases motivation
Triggers big eating
Reduces self-efficacy
Creates unnecessary stress
Origins: Your Sea Witch developed from past experiences, cultural messages, and learned behaviours. Understanding this can help you approach it with compassion.
Shirzad Chamine, in his book "Positive Intelligence," describes these inner critics as Saboteurs. He states: "Saboteurs are the internal enemies that represent your mental patterns of thinking and feeling that sabotage your happiness and success." This concept aligns closely with our Sea Witch metaphor.
The goal isn't to silence the Sea Witch completely. Instead, we aim to recognize its voice and understand its intentions. This helps us weather the storms of self-doubt, fear, and scarcity that everyone faces at times.
How do I apply this right now? How do I explore this more?
Try these exercises to identify and understand your personal Sea Witch. These are the first two steps of the shift from critic to compassion, cynic to champion and cowardice to courage.
You may stop reading the lesson and do these activities now or wait until the end of the lesson to do the activities in sequence.
Once you complete this lesson, the activities will appear on their own pages so you can find them and repeat them anytime.
Activity 1:
The Sea Witch's Greatest Hits
This exercise helps you recognize how your Sea Witch manifests in your life.
Activity 2:
Outmaneuvering A Sea Witch
Now that you've identified your Sea Witch's tactics, let's explore strategies to navigate around its influence.
How do I bring it all together?
Identifying your Sea Witch is crucial. Without awareness, you're blind to your mind's self-sabotage. Recognizing the inner critic creates distance between these thoughts and your true self.
Remember, you're the captain, not the Sea Witch. The less attention you give it, the easier it becomes to move forward.
As you work with these concepts, you might notice:
Increased awareness of negative thought patterns
More self-compassion when facing challenges
Greater ability to choose responses rather than reacting automatically
The Sea Witch is part of your trip. The goal isn't to avoid rough waters, but to sail smoothly even when it mutters below deck.
How will I know if this is making a difference? How do I start noticing the changes?
As you become better at recognizing and managing your Sea Witch, you may notice:
Quicker recognition of negative self-talk
Less emotional impact from critical thoughts
More balanced thinking
Improved resilience to setbacks
Greater self-compassion
Track these changes in your Captain's Log. Progress isn't always linear. Some days the Sea Witch may seem louder. That's normal and helps you learn to appreciate the smooth sailing days even more.
What is next?
In our next lesson, Who's On The Coach Boat? Identifying Your Inner Coach, we'll explore your inner supportive voice. We'll learn to amplify the coach that sails alongside you, offering encouragement and guidance.
Shirzad Chamine's book "Positive Intelligence" introduces the concept of the Positive Intelligence Quotient (PQ). This measures the strength of your positive mental muscles versus the negative ones. A higher PQ indicates greater mastery over your mind and better ability to tackle life's challenges. Our next lesson will help you boost your PQ by strengthening your inner coach.
Understanding your Sea Witch is just the first step. The real magic happens when you navigate with both the Sea Witch and the Coach. Use their combined wisdom to steer towards your Life Weight. Stay curious, keep observing, and be patient while you build your positive intelligence skills.