This inspirational post gives excellent advice on overcoming discouraging inner thoughts. While written from the perspective of a musician, the author's ideas can easily be applied to dance.
Over the years there has been something within myself that has been detrimental and negative to my playing music- the persistent feeling that I am not playing as well as others, and even worse that I’m not playing as well as I think I should be playing. These thoughts never fail to make me feel unhappy and inadequate. So why do I keep allowing myself to think this way if it only makes me unhappy?
The answer is that such thoughts become a habit. Habits, even negative habits, are within our comfort zone. It is comfortable to fall into habitual thinking because new thinking means going out on a limb and being uncertain and vulnerable.Full post here.