How do YOU shovel snow?

Let’s face it, snow is pretty to look at…the serenity of gazing at the falling snow, while snuggled warmly in your home, potentially with that warm cup of cocoa or tea. Or, the sound of a crackling fire, while enjoying to snow covered trees. Some of us may even enjoy the pleasure of the sound of the snow ‘crunching’ beneath our feet, as we walk our dog, or venture out.

But the reality is, as beautiful as it appears, and sometimes even sounds, snow is very difficult to move. It can be heavy. It can stick to the ground and be resistant to move. It can even cause us to slip and fall, often getting stuck and unable to move.

Kind of like those unpleasant inner thoughts we sometimes [or often!] get which stifle our sense of self-improvement, and impact our self-esteem. That ‘critical inner critic’ which tells us we can’t. The ‘voice inside our heads’ which really needs to remind us we are less than – not smart enough, not capable enough, not attractive enough, not – well – enough!

So, how do we stop that critical inner critic? Well, how do we move the snow. A little bit at a time, shoveling away the snow which is most in our way, to allow us to take those ever important first steps – out of our house, then down to the driveway, then perhaps to the road. Hard work to be sure, yet, when we recognize we can, even just those first shovelfuls, we can do more, a little at a time, to clear our way.

The same is true for our critical inner critic. Is it true I am not smart enough or capable enough, or whatever the ‘enough’ for the day might be? Or, is that the story I tell myself to keep me snowbound. After all, snow bound can be pretty as I sit inside watching the world quietly from my couch. Yet, it can also be unfulfilling, as we keep being tugged by that desire to try.

Because, what is that inner critic anyway, a reminder that in the past we may have endeavored to do something, or accomplish something, and engage with something or someone, and the outcome was very different than we planned. O.K. now what. What have we learned from that experience. How do we assimilate or accommodate that data to do things differently moving forward, rather than simply not trying at all?

And so we try. Just one shovelful as it were, one challenge of that inner critic. 1 step. And then. 1 step.

After all, what if you are smart enough, capable enough. What if you are, in fact…enough. What then?

© 2026: Donna J Clarke/Integrative Pathways Counseling, LLC. All rights reserved.