HEARING DOUBLE
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“You’ll soon realize: there is the voice, and here I am listening to it, watching it. This I am realization . . . arises from beyond the mind.” – The Power of Now
Who is the voice inside of your head?
We’ve all heard the voice inside our heads. It tells us what we should or shouldn’t do, reminds us of the mistakes we’ve made, and rambles on with observations we’re making. The internal voice even has the power to flood our minds with alternate topics and opinions. This then distracts us from what we’re actually saying or doing. It can feel as though the voice never takes a break. It’s always there to give us thoughts about ourselves and our surroundings. There are times when the voice is momentarily silenced because of a task we’re focused on in the external world. But it always returns when our attention fades.
When we find ourselves overthinking about trivial things, like answering “You too!” when a server says to enjoy your meal, it’s really the voice inside our head. It convinces us how foolish we are and how embarrassing that was. Our internal voice relishes holding onto our mistakes and reminding us of our flaws every chance it gets. Especially as we’re trying to fall asleep. We become stuck in our minds with the opinions of our internal voice, which continuously replays negative thoughts. So why do we let this voice overpower us?
Our internal voice is directly linked with our ego. Every move we make and every action we take is constantly being judged by our ego. So when we slip up or embarrass ourselves it’s the voice of our ego that’s shaming us. Our ego has its own vision of our best, perfect self -who we should be. The ego nags us as a parent would because it’s never satisfied and expects more from us. When we fail the ego’s vision we hear its negative internal voice critiquing us. But, if we come to realize that we aren’t our egos, then we don’t have to listen to its voice. By taking a moment to pause and actively listen to the judgmental voice, we’ll hear that there’s another voice -our authentic voice.
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When we listen to the judgmental voice in our head there must be a second voice that’s doing the observing. This second voice is what exists when we’re living in the “Now”. Our ego’s voice can’t exist in the “Now” because it’s solely dependent on the past and future. The ego only survives through the thoughts, judgments, and emotions of everything that has happened to us and what can happen to us. So in order to live in the “Now” we must learn to silence the ego.
By observing our judgmental voice we question what the ego is telling us, thus gaining control over its thoughts and actions. We can learn to disassociate with the ego by not giving it power. It’s more than just being kind to ourselves like we would treat a friend. It’s un-friending the ego so that what it says doesn’t affect us. Every time we hear the judgmental voice inside our heads we can stop and realize that we are listening to the voice. In that moment we can subdue the ego.
When we learn to listen to our authentic voice we’ll be in control of our own mind and can finally let ourselves off the hook. We don’t need to keep beating ourselves up over the past and fixating on the future. We can be in the “Now” and choose for ourselves who we want to be, what we think, and how to make the most of our experiences.
