“When someone goes to the doctor and says, “I hear a voice in my head,” he or she will most likely be sent to a psychiatrist. The fact is that, in a very similar way, virtually everyone hears a voice, or several voices, in their head all the time: the involuntary thought processes that you don’t realize you have the power to stop. Continuous monologues or dialogues.” Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now.
Yesterday I’ve invited You to start noticing your thoughts when talking with someone.
Today we go a step further and I challenge You to start observing the voices in your head throughout your day, as often as You remember.
Day 6 – Start Observing The Voices In Your Head
How To Do It: If You did yesterday’s exercise You already had a glimpse of how to notice your thoughts while in a conversation with someone. Today, that Someone is Yourself. You are talking with yourself all the time. And no, You are not crazy if You admit this. It just happens to all of us. Our minds are constantly chatting, using different voices, depending on the situation we find ourselves in. Observing these voices is the beginning of freedom.
How Not To Do This: When observing for the first times it’s easy to slip into judging or joining the conversation. “I shouldn’t have done this or that!” “How could I have been so stupid?” “Oh, man, I am late again, my boss is going to go crazy on me!” So be aware and do NOT add anything to what You hear.
Just observe. You might discover a Mad House hidden in that tiny space between Your ears. That’s O.K.
The endless chatter of our minds is actually like a disease that everyone takes as the normal situation.
The issue is that it is your mind using You, not You using Your mind.
It’s a huge difference, and when You start observing You might at first be shocked by the terrible words You use to talk to yourself or by the war that goes on between the different voices.
The next step is to be amused by them. When You find yourself laughing at one of these voices, that’s the beginning of peace and sanity 🙂
My experience with this: when I first began listening to the voices in my head, I was struck by how much I was judging everyone. I couldn’t believe what a terrible judge was hiding in my head and how she would go on judging everything and everyone. It took me weeks of awareness to finally let go of the Inner Crazy Judge.
What a blessing and relaxation when the Judge stopped voicing all the time! Of course sometimes she shouts back but I am much quicker now to observe and laugh at myself.
After the Judge went away, I discovered other voices that wanted to take the space left open. According to the situation these voices might be The-Poor-Me-Victim or it’s opposite, the Saviour, the Dumb-Ass or the Genius and many more.
It’s so funny when You realize You have your own cuckoo’s nest in your head 🙂
And so liberating when You realize everyone is the same.
Suddenly, any fighting seems ridiculous, not worth the tiniest amount of energy.
This is my experience so far with observing the voices in my head.
I am so looking forward to hear what You discover at the end of the day about Your own voices. Let me know in the comments.
As usual, feel free to share this with a friend.
Stay tuned for Day 7! 🙂
Thank you for doing this challenge with me.
With all my love,
Raluca
PS: Here’s a 5 minutes video where Eckhart Tolle explains how to silence the voices in your head when You can’t sleep at night 🙂