Is your mind your friend or foe?
Our minds can be critical, harsh and drain us of our energy and self-esteem.
Our minds can also be our cheerleaders, reminding us that we are made of stardust and are incredible.
Our thoughts and energy create our reality - the inner and outer working in harmony.
Of course, this doesn’t mean we have to be positive all the time, that can be equally exhausting and is unhealthy. We all have those days where we are irritable, sad, angry and want to hide.
However, really listening to your inner voice and what it’s whispering (or sometimes shouting) to you can be completely life changing.
Here are 4 tips for hearing your inner voice.
Emotions
Emotions are the product of our thoughts and beliefs.
Being in tune with how you feel emotionally can help remind you to listen to your thoughts.
This is for any emotion, it is just as important to understand what your mind is saying when you feel good.
A sudden change
Do you ever have those moments where one minute you feel fine, then suddenly you feel flat, tearful, anxious or angry? It seems to be for no reason and comes out of the blue?
Allow yourself to pause and take an exploration into your mind.
What happened just before? This can be internal or external. For example, you might feel quite tired (internal) or read an email asking you to do something (external).
What thoughts are you aware of? These thoughts can be about you, other people or the situation. For example, if you feel tired your thoughts might be “why am I so tired again?” (situation) “I’m so useless always feeling like this” (you) “People are going to see I can’t cope and think I’m a flake” (other people).
What if it’s true?
Sometimes we need to dig a little deeper into our mind.
A thought can seem quite bland, for example “I’m going to be late” but come with a strong emotion such as anxiety or panic.
To see what’s going on it can be helpful to ask “so what if I’m going to be late? What does that mean ABOUT ME?”
“Being late means I’m an unreliable person.”
“Being an unreliable person means that people won’t want to work with me.”
“If people don’t want to work with me I’ll never progress in my career”
“Not progressing in my career means I’ll be stuck and a failure”
You can see the snowball effect above, but this happens in seconds and we’re often unaware of it. So it’s helpful to dig a little deeper into our thoughts to see what is underlying.
Meditation, or just sitting quietly
In busy lives, we are on the go, being bombarded with images and messages. Being able to hear our own minds in all the hub-bub can seem near impossible.
Having regular time to sit quietly, meditate if you choose to, can give you a pause to listen into your own mind.
Our minds are incredible! They give us guidance and can keep us true to ourselves if we can cut through the noise and truly listen.
As an experienced and accredited CBT Therapist I can help you be released from symptoms of anxiety and depression and work with you to make friends with your inner voice.
If you want to find out more about working together, please contact me to arrange an initial consultation.
