The Voice

Negative self talk. We all experience this from time to time. We can be so hard on ourselves, become our worst critics, we can talk ourselves out of being our best more realized selves. We tend to do so very easily, and convince ourselves into inaction.
What if we took those actions, who would we be? How much better could our lives be, or how could we better serve others if we would just get out of our way and allow our dreams to manifest through our actions? We could grow ourselves, we could grow our community, so why then would we get in our own way?
So much of who we have become through physiological and psychological evolution is designed around our ability to thrive. So when we do things that inhibit our own ability to thrive, and not just survive, it would follow that this is not true to our true nature.
We often experience negative self talk as an interrupting thought, or idea that interjects at various moments in our lives. We see ourselves in a mirror and focus in on our flaws and notice how our teeth aren’t straight, or our bodies are out of shape, or maybe we have stretch marks or blemishes. These thoughts keep us from feeling the best about ourselves, they can make us feel insecure, and dis-empowered to do our best in our day.
Maybe we have a really great inspired idea and then we think that our idea is stupid, or no one will get it, or maybe we feel like we’re incapable of manifesting this idea into reality. Many of us feel as though we don’t deserve to achieve our realized ideas, so we will stop ourselves before we even start. We will invent obstacles that seem insurmountable before we even get to the planning stages of living out our ideas. If we all have the potential to thrive and it’s in our nature to do so, then why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we constantly get in our own way, and create obstacles that dis-empower us into inaction?
The first thing we should try to do when we encounter these internal negative feedbacks is to ask ourselves, “…but where is this voice coming from? Who’s voice is this? Who does this sound like?” If it is against our nature to will ourselves into inaction in our own lives, then we must have learned these thought patterns from somewhere. This system was then rewarded, most likely by helping us to avoid the pain of failure, but in that process, we never took the chance to succeed.
So who’s voice is this? Who’s voice is in your mind keeping you from feeling good about yourself? Who’s voice is telling you your ideas are not good enough for you to pursue? Who’s voice is getting in your way when you end up talking yourself out of asking the person you desire to meet you out for drinks? Who’s voice is making you feel like you have to apologize when you get excited talking about a new idea you had? Who’s voice tells you that the clothes you decided to wear look stupid on you? Who’s voice is telling you that if you’re not perfect, then you’re not good enough to get what you want in life?
Chances are pretty good that this voice sounds an awful lot like something you heard while you were growing up and developing your sense of self. You heard this voice for so long that you felt like there was no other choice but to agree to it. You integrated it into your thought process, and you agreed to carry the source of the voice with you into your adult life. You are continuing to hold hands with the source of the voice, and let it monitor and pass that same judgement on everything you decide to do for yourself.
So what is this voice for you? Is it a person, or a doctrine, or some other message you were exposed to? This is by no means an invitation to pass the blame back to the source of the voice, but rather an opportunity to take a deeper look at why you would get in your own way. Chances are the source of your voice is just reiterating a lesson that the voice’s source adopted, and it would serve no one to pass blame back to them. You can take responsibility for how it affects you and how you have allowed it to interfere in your own life. You can realize the power of your own innate nature and your desire to thrive, and make a new agreement to adopt this idea in an effort to take the power back from your negative self talk.
Your mind is a very powerful tool, and if you can master it, you can master the world. If you can imagine, for just one moment, who you could be at your full potential, then you can become that. The only thing that is in between you and everything you’ve ever wanted, is you. Own that.