So and now to complete this snowfall trilogy, I’m thinking about how do we become aware of this internal voice that I’m thinking about, this little message somewhere from inside us, telling us what is right or wrong? And it seems like, because this voice can easily be so quiet, it’s really all about quieting down all the other voices, all the other influences around us, so that we can hear it.
Maybe we don’t have to do anything special and specific to bring out the voice, other than simply reducing all the other voices.
Maybe that voice is speaking to us all along, it’s sending its little nudges, its little hints, all along, but we choose, or we just let other voices cover it up.
So one source of this would be all the influences around us, external influences.
Obviously, you know, we’re living in the world, we’re thinking about the world, we’re surrounded by influences in all directions, and these are pulling us, and it’s so easy to just focus on what’s around us.
It’s so kind of vague and immaterial if we just get this little voice inside.
How does that compete with the whole world of sensation from around us, the whole world of influences? And the other thing might be that it’s simply the voice inside us, although I guess I’m really presenting it as a very positive thing, because it seems like it is very positive to connect to some idea of what is maybe our true self or deep self, or something that we want at a deep level, something that is connected to a sense of what is right and good, and all that sounds like great stuff, but it seems like one of the big reasons to not listen to this voice, and to just completely stuff it away somewhere, is because this voice can often be telling us things that we do not want to hear.
Now, if we’re living in alignment with what is good, and we are pursuing what is good and making that part of our lives, well, then it seems like that voice could be a happy- you know, could be giving us a happy thumbs-up, saying “Great”, you know, “life is good.
I mean, despite all the challenges, you have the right perspective, you’re doing good, you’re doing the best you can.
Keep up the good work.” But, if we are not following what at some level we know is good and right, if we are doing things that are taking us away from that, taking us out of alignment, suddenly that voice is this kind of nagging bore.
It’s like, you know, “Hey, I just want to have fun.” And then this voice is just saying, “No, you know you have responsibilities.” Nobody wants to listen to that.
It just becomes this boring, this kind of negative influence, saying, you know, “Oh, watch out.
Watch out.
This is a bad direction.
Be careful what you’re doing.
I know you’re having fun, but this is taking you away from what’s good.” So it’s so easy to just say, you know, “Please, just shush.
Just stop talking.” And we can just silence our internal voice, and just cover it up with all the other noises that are available.
And it seems like it’s very easy to shush the inner voice, because even though it is going to keep talking no matter what, it’s still going to keep going, but because this voice, it’s almost like this whisper inside us, because it’s so faint, it seems like it’s really easy to just cover it up with noise, and we can just be surrounded by sensation, and by our own internal thoughts and sensations, and just keep it covered up.
Just like daylight covering up the starlight, you know, the stars may still be there, but we’re completely oblivious to them during the daylight, because these other voices and influences that are so much more powerful and just covering it up.
It’s only when- we have to allow the silence to happen to be able to hear that quiet voice.
And so it seems like so much of escapism is keeping the noise going.
We can’t sit still and just listen to the voice that is saying “You have to change.
You’re off here.
You’re off track.
You got to change.” We don’t want to hear that, so instead we have to keep bombarding ourselves with sensation to just stay distracted.
You know, so much of this is about distraction from what we know to be good.
So this is my idea about this inner voice, which probably needs another name, because it’s not exactly a voice, but this inner hint.
And I wonder if any of this rings true.
I wonder if this is even a fair way to look at it.
Is there a sense of rightness inside us that is speaking? Or is that voice itself- can that voice itself be thrown off? Or is there always some little voice there that can guide us in the right direction if we only listen to it? I’d be very curious to hear your experiences with this phenomenon.
#bequietandlisten #listentoyourself #innervoice