Letters To Seneca – Letter 13
Dear Seneca,
I started reading a book called “The Untethered Soul“. I’m two chapters in, and so much already resonates with the human condition. Today I want to explore our inner voice.
Every moment there’s a voice in the back of our heads constantly narrating, defining, and judging the world around us. If you don’t believe me, just take a minute to sit in silence, if you’re paying attention you’ll hear it. 😉
For most of us, this voice rules our perception of the world and our place in it, which commonly leads to frustration, sorrow, and all other negative feelings. This happens because we’re unaware of the inner voice constantly speaking to us. But… If we’re able to take a step back and observe the inner voice, we’re able to dissociate from the inner voice. By observing the thought we’re disarming its power. This is the key.
I like many of you struggle to observe my thoughts and it’s hard to dissociate. This is a never-ending lifelong practice.
One concept from this book resonated and I’d like to share it with you. Imagine this inner voice being a third person, someone that’s always with you narrating, defining, and judging everything around you. There with you when you’re in the shower, at the gym, eating, reading, walking, literally everywhere. Instead of allowing the inner voice to drive you should immediately take a step back and ask “What part of me is (X)”.
With the above question, you’re focusing on what part of you is feeling, judging, or trying to problem solve, not immediately jumping into the solving process yourself. If you fall right into problem-solving, you’ve already lost yourself to the inner voice, but if you step back and ask “What part of me is (X)” you’re creating space.
In our daily lives, the objective is to establish a subject-object relationship within our minds. You the observer are the subject, while the inner voice is the observed (i.e. object).
We’ll leave it here for now.
Farewell.