In case you haven’t noticed, you have a mental dialogue going on inside your head that never stops. It just keeps going and going and going on some more. Ugh.
Have you, like me, spent time wondering about this incessant (and often annoying) voice and why it’s so hard to get it to just shut up already?
Do you ever take time to really listen to this voice?
If not, give it a try right now and see what it has to say. (I promise, it ALWAYS has something to say!)
I just had a moment where I paused and listened to mine and this is what it blurted out: Oh my gosh, I want these texts to stop. Why did I leave my notifications on? I told myself I was going to write for an uninterrupted hour, and here I am dealing with trying to clean up this ridiculous family drama. Wow, but I’m thankful for my family. And I’m glad that I can help clear up the misunderstanding. I love my family. But seriously, people—it’s not rocket science. You can manage this without me and leave me in peace for this little time while my kiddos are gone… And on it goes, like a racing bullet, zipping through the sky.
So if you spend any amount of time noticing this mental voice, you will see that it never stops. It just keeps rattling away. On top of that, the voice takes both sides of the conversation. It’s content as long as it gets to keep on yapping.
Oh. My. Goodness.
Why is this voice talking? After all, it’s you who’s talking and you who’s listening. The voice flip-flops, changing sides quickly, as you can see in my internal rant above. Who is it arguing with anyway? Who could possibly win? It gets veeeeery confusing.
According to Michael A. Singer in his book, The Untethered Soul, “The best way to free yourself from this incessant chatter is to step back and view it objectively. Just view the voice as a vocalizing mechanism that is capable of making it appear like someone is in there talking to you. Don’t think about it; just notice it. No matter what the voice is saying, it’s all the same. It doesn’t matter if it’s saying nice things or mean things, worldly things or spiritual things. It doesn’t matter because it’s still just a voice talking inside your head. In fact, the only way to get your distance from this voice is to stop differentiating what it’s saying. Stop feeling that one thing it says is you and the other thing it says is not you. If you’re hearing it talk, it’s obviously not you. You are the one who hears the voice. You are the one who notices that it’s talking. There is nothing more important to true growth than realizing that you are not the voice of the mind—you are the one who hears it.”
If I may, that last line is pretty darn powerful: “There is nothing more important to true growth than realizing that you are not the voice of the mind – you are the one who hears it.”
He likens our mind, our psyche, to a maniacal roommate who can ruin anything we’re doing at any moment. It can take a huge day in your life and trample all over it. Sound familiar? When we take the time to observe the unruly, unpredictable dialogue our roommate produces we can see what a darn troublemaker it is.
So once we’ve paid attention to the annoying voice, then what?
We tune in and start by asking the age-old question, Who am I? Our first response is to identify with our name, our characteristics, our roles, but those things are not who we are at our core. We dive deeper and contemplate, Who is having all these physical, emotional, and mental experiences? When you do that, who is left? Who is experiencing the experience? When we practice being a witness (and what a practice this is!) we recognize that as we watch our experiences, we can drop into a level of awareness of the experience itself. Consciousness is pure awareness, and there’s nothing higher or deeper. That being the case, who you are, who we all are, is the one who sees, the seer. From inside these bodies we live in, we are looking out, aware of the events, thoughts, and emotions that pass before us. Ultimately, we all live in the seat of consciousness. You are behind everything, watching, witnessing. This is our true home.
As we get totally absorbed in the world of thoughts, feelings, and senses, we experience our life as if we’re watching our own personal television show. We get drawn in. This is life. But ideally, we can step back and realize that though this drama is unfolding around us, we are really sitting quietly inside, looking out. The process of stepping back takes you out of being submerged in your experiences and thoughts and sensory input and into self-awareness. The witness is your centering device. It guides the work you do on yourself. As the late great Ram Dass said, “The greatest thing you can do for another human being is to get your own house in order and find your true spiritual heart.”
I fall in and out of consciousness all the time. But as I’ve begun this practice of tuning into the part of me that observes, I can remember and return again and AGAIN. We all can.
As you feel the need to re-center throughout your day, start the simple practice of saying hello inside, over and over. When you do this, you become aware that you can hear “hello” echoing in your mind. You are accessing the inner witness within. And then you can allow yourself to relax. As you watch and listen to this internal sound, you become aware of being aware, conscious of consciousness itself. And what a gift and relief! We are not that crazy voice in our mind.
Whew!
