Wednesday 24 December 2008

Voices


Have you ever become aware of all the voices within you? Most of them speak subconsciously and most of them are not yours.

Because we live mostly in our heads, and because our heads are full of what has been given to us from the outside, we are swamped by the voices of other people. Who we think of as ourselves is just that, who we think. It is not who we are.

The voices in our heads are wall to wall, a thick fabric woven of the things we have heard, going round and round incessantly in our minds. I noticed one just now while watering the garden, the voice of my father about the harmful effects of the sun.

When I was younger, I rejected that voice, now I hear it as if it is my own. In both cases, it was his voice, in fact not even that. It was one he had picked up and repeated. I had to be really conscious to see all this.

We live unconsciously by the voices of others, voices that were not even theirs and not even spoken the way we heard them. Voices of fearful parents and dictatorial teachers and shoot-from-the-hip peers, sometimes decades old, rule our lives. It can be difficult, virtually impossible sometimes, to turn them off.

Deep inside us, though, is our own true voice. It is an inner voice, not spoken and not thought. It is felt, sometimes softly, especially at first. Our relationship with it is one of the most important we can develop. So tune in and listen...

Your inner voice is the only one that is you, the only one that matters.

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