The Power of Your Inner Voice

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We all have an Inner Voice. It may be indefinable, but it is there. It helps us to make decisions, sense danger, separate good from bad, and select friends, and even choose a life time partner. This inner voice may be made up of our own personalities and experiences, so no two people have the same inner voice, although the reservoir of experiences could be shared with others. Some refer to this inner voice as their soul, and that is not something I would want to argue with.

Many people do not find it easy to communicate with their inner self. Maybe they are reluctant to believe it even exists. Such people may tend to look at themselves and life in a negative manner, thus depriving themselves of opportunities just that are there to be taken. If that sounds like you, you should start by adopting a small but radical change: eliminate the word “cannot” from your vocabulary. Of course, this is more of a symbol than an actual tool to “cure” your negative views, but it can be very effective. Whenever you hear yourself saying: “I can’t do that”, just stop and think about it. Why did you use that expression? Why didn’t you say “Yes, I can do it!”? What is the real underlying reason for your denial?

Maybe you won’t find answers to such questions immediately, but this exercise will teach you to adopt a positive attitude towards everything about you. Most of us have a rather conservative inner voice. We unconsciously try to avoid experiencing new things because we feel insecure about them. We are comfortable with our old life patterns and habits, and are wary about changing them. This is a feeling that can tend to get more pronounced as you get older, though I admit I've been quite the opposite, but this doesn’t mean that we have to accept it as it is.

Let’s say your life long dream is to live on a tropical island. You try to search back, in our past experiences, and you will not find any solutions for achieving this ideal. The inner voice may then conclude: “it can’t be done!”. You may have a difficult time putting your conscious mind against your inner voice, but in order to achieve the goal you must escape the ropes that tie you to the past, and search for new alternatives. Your inner voice is probably against this: “you’re doing fine as you are now, why would you want to risk changing things?” it might say.

I had that dream of living on a tropical island, but in my case it was my inner voice that eventually told me "now is the time for you to go. Everything is set up for you." It was my inner voice that gave me the confidence to just pack up and leave my home country, knowing for sure that I would be happy and, what's more, belong in the island where I was going.

Even though it is a difficult endeavour, you should keep in mind that it is, after all, your inner voice. Therefore, you do have control over it, you have a very close relationship with it, and you can make it work for you in reaching your goals. With persistence, determination, and strong will, you can turn all the negative thoughts of yourself into positive ones. Stop running away from your fears – they will never stop haunting you! Prepare to face them, one by one. Tell yourself, before a difficult challenge that is waiting for you, that you will come out as a winner. A positive attitude and good morale may weigh much more in the balance than countless hours of physical or technical preparation.

Taoist Meditation