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Better Days: Tame Your Inner Critic
In this life-changing book, writer and spiritual coach, Neal Allen, teaches us a stunning new method for quieting the inner critic.
“Better Days will help you get to know your inner critic, and quiet its yammering, and in so doing, get to know the person you were born to be.” - Anne Lamott, Author of Dusk Night Dawn, Bird by Bird and others
What if your superego has it wrong?
That snarky little bully in your head…you know the one.
You’ve lived under its weight for decades.
I’m a fraud, I’m lazy
I need to work harder
I need to be tougher, funnier, calmer…
I need to stay quiet, look pretty, stop showing off
I need to put others before me, I need to put myself first
I need to be perfect
I need to hide who I really am
Sound familiar?
You know that its scolding voice is harmful to you, but you can't will it away. You accept a life with short periods of peace and long stretches of stress and anxiety. But you don't have to.
In this revolutionary new book, Better Tame Your Inner Critic, writer and spiritual coach, Neal Allen, examines a critical aspect of the human psyche that often gets ignored - the superego.
Building on Freud’s idea that the superego necessarily forms a person’s moral conscience, Neal explains how this voice in your head develops in childhood as a survival mechanism, but when no longer needed for protection, camps out in your mind like a personal parasite. A parasite that doesn’t belong.
Through simple and engaging exercises and explorations, Neal leads you into meeting, confronting, and ultimately quieting your own inner critic.
By shedding off the burden of the superego, you can overcome tired patterns of reward and punishment, reduce the self-talk that harms you, and ultimately clear an open space for the life you deserve, one that is gentler and more peaceful.
Just imagine…if all that nasty, negative chatter in your head just evaporated ... what would you do next?
Better days are just ahead.
“Better Days will help you get to know your inner critic, and quiet its yammering, and in so doing, get to know the person you were born to be.” - Anne Lamott, Author of Dusk Night Dawn, Bird by Bird and others
What if your superego has it wrong?
That snarky little bully in your head…you know the one.
You’ve lived under its weight for decades.
I’m a fraud, I’m lazy
I need to work harder
I need to be tougher, funnier, calmer…
I need to stay quiet, look pretty, stop showing off
I need to put others before me, I need to put myself first
I need to be perfect
I need to hide who I really am
Sound familiar?
You know that its scolding voice is harmful to you, but you can't will it away. You accept a life with short periods of peace and long stretches of stress and anxiety. But you don't have to.
In this revolutionary new book, Better Tame Your Inner Critic, writer and spiritual coach, Neal Allen, examines a critical aspect of the human psyche that often gets ignored - the superego.
Building on Freud’s idea that the superego necessarily forms a person’s moral conscience, Neal explains how this voice in your head develops in childhood as a survival mechanism, but when no longer needed for protection, camps out in your mind like a personal parasite. A parasite that doesn’t belong.
Through simple and engaging exercises and explorations, Neal leads you into meeting, confronting, and ultimately quieting your own inner critic.
By shedding off the burden of the superego, you can overcome tired patterns of reward and punishment, reduce the self-talk that harms you, and ultimately clear an open space for the life you deserve, one that is gentler and more peaceful.
Just imagine…if all that nasty, negative chatter in your head just evaporated ... what would you do next?
Better days are just ahead.
200 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 5, 2023
46 people are currently reading
372 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 16, 2024
This is a must read!!
March 1, 2024
DNF - Awful. Unrelatable and melodramatic. I gave up after 4 excruciating chapters of nonsense and congratulated myself for using the library and not wasting a penny buying this waste of paper.
February 12, 2024
Didn’t really relate - kinda wordy
May 13, 2024
I grabbed this book at the library and thought instantly it would be a fitting time for me to read it. Mind you, most of my self help / enlightenment reading comes from Gabby Bernstein, or a similar author. When I read the reviews on here, I was a little worried about if I’d find the book helpful, interesting, or good.
While some of it was a bit much to get through, I actually greatly enjoyed it! The daily practical exercises are really helpful. And, while going through my own sort of personal trauma right now, I have used these methods every day since starting the book. While I can see why it isn’t for everyone, I found it when I needed it and it’s prompted me to check out other books by Neal.
While some of it was a bit much to get through, I actually greatly enjoyed it! The daily practical exercises are really helpful. And, while going through my own sort of personal trauma right now, I have used these methods every day since starting the book. While I can see why it isn’t for everyone, I found it when I needed it and it’s prompted me to check out other books by Neal.
September 30, 2025
This review is based on the audio book. This is a clear case of the author-should-not-narrate-their-own-audio-book.
This book was designed for me -- and suggested to me by my spiritual director. I've got a nasty inner critic and I'd like it to shut the f@#k up! But I'm DNF-ing this book at chapter 9. At times it was so extremely silly I just could not stand to listen to it anymore. Maybe I'll come back around in time and read it, because I think there are just those books that don't do well on audio and if I were reading it, it would be fine. This could be one of them. But there were times where I didn't even understand what the author was talking about, so I'm done for now.
This book was designed for me -- and suggested to me by my spiritual director. I've got a nasty inner critic and I'd like it to shut the f@#k up! But I'm DNF-ing this book at chapter 9. At times it was so extremely silly I just could not stand to listen to it anymore. Maybe I'll come back around in time and read it, because I think there are just those books that don't do well on audio and if I were reading it, it would be fine. This could be one of them. But there were times where I didn't even understand what the author was talking about, so I'm done for now.
March 10, 2024
I’m disappointed as I was looking forward to this book. It’s Freudian, which almost made me close it immediately, but I hung in there for a while to give it a chance. It had few practical tips and is overall just odd. I eventually started skimming and then gave up.
May 27, 2024
I was looking forward to reading this after listening to the author on a podcast however the important information was summarised in one chapter and the rest of the book was drawn out and unnecessary- I gave up three quarters of the way through
March 20, 2024
Very practical and encouraging take on calming the critical inner voice. It has instant application, and I’m already using the tools. Not too academic, but never pandering. This book is just right.
January 30, 2024
DNF on p46. Not a bad book, just not what I was expecting. A bit dry and not touchy feely as I'd hoped.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews