Have you ever felt like you live in a courtroom where the judge is handing out a verdict about every performance? Well I have. For instance, I recently did a recording. I left with my mental judge telling me I should have waited until my biorhythms were stronger. It is true that I made the editing job more difficult by stumbling over some of the words, but the content was strong. So that left the outcome up for debate by my inner judge.

At least in this instance, I felt I had been handed a plus and a minus going into the final verdict. Sometimes the verdict is based on one-sided evidence, with my performance labeled only good or only bad. But even if the final verdict is good, or balanced, it is just the opinion of my inner judge.

The truth of the matter is that my inner judge should not be allowed to hand out verdicts, because he is not the highest authority. So if I let him rule, then the higher authority of my Heart will not be heard. My ego will be lifted up or put down, but my Heart will not be able to affirm that I am a loving being.

My inner judge is an ego-driven part of my mind that is determined that his opinion should be the final verdict. Plus, he convinces my feelings to go along with him. This means that for me to bypass his verdict, I must refuse to listen to my mind and my feelings until the Heart has spoken. Boy is this hard to do. This is because, somewhere along the line, I was told by friends and relatives that my inner judge was always right.

So after my inner judge issued a verdict of bad performance around my recording, I had to go back to why my Heart had directed me to do the recording in the first place. It was so people could understand the positive impact of intensity. And sure enough, I felt intense about that intent. So I delivered exactly what my Heart wanted—not what my ego wanted, but what my Heart wanted.

Realigning with my heart’s intent (rather than my inner judge) before an event gives me the strongest stance. But if I forget to do that, afterwards is not too late. The best answer would be to fire the inner judge, but he has tenure, so you just have to go over his head, so to speak. Try it and see how it works for you.