Rest as Rebellion: When Your Inner Critic Pushes Instead of Insults

Saturday morning—the hard part for me in setting time aside to recharge for the weekend is that my inner critic is waiting for me. When I want to release the work week, the critic wants to replay it.

Here’s one thing I’ve learned about the inner critic: The popular interpretation is that it’s an accuser, spending its time telling you that you aren’t worthy or good enough. Your inner critic is draining you—you could say it’s beating you up.

But my inner critic has evolved. It doesn’t insult me; it pushes me. “You need to do more. You aren’t quite there yet. Don’t celebrate. You can’t validate yourself because that’s selfish.” The result is the same—the critic has succeeded in wearing me down—but the method is different. Instead of tearing me down with insults, it exhausts me with impossible standards for achievement.

This is why rest has become my rebellion. If I’d listened to my inner critic, I never would’ve self-published my two novels or finished my doctorate—because there would always be one more revision, one more credential, one more thing to prove before I was “ready.” That same voice now tells me that resting is wasting time, that I should be optimizing my recovery or building something new.

So this weekend, in order to truly recharge and refresh, I need to engage in rebellion against my inner critic. And I’m getting better at it. Because sometimes rebellion builds resistance—and resistance is exactly what I need to protect the space where healing and renewal happen.