There’s an idea from *The Untethered Soul* that really stuck with me:
The voice in your head isn’t you.
You’re the one listening to it.
If that voice was an actual person walking next to you all day, saying out loud everything it says in your mind, would you want to hang out with them?
I know I wouldn’t.
Mine would be bouncing all over the place. Thinking of worst‑case scenarios, replaying old stuff, having fake arguments, talking shit, then switching subjects every few seconds. That would be a terrible person to be around.
Most of us never question it. We just assume that voice is “me” and let it run the show.
Why this matters: once you realize you’re the one *hearing* the thoughts, you get a tiny bit of space. You can see a thought and decide if you want to roll with it or not.
“You’re behind.”
“You always screw this up.”
“Don’t even start.”
Those are just thoughts. They’re not facts.
A couple things that help me:
Just noticing it. Catching myself and thinking, “Okay, that’s the voice again,” instead of automatically believing it.
Getting quiet on purpose. A few minutes without my phone, or a short meditation, makes it easier to watch thoughts come and go instead of getting dragged around by all of them.
The inner dialogue isn’t going anywhere. But we don’t have to let it drive.
— Bus
3 comments
Gkilla
Two years sober from drugs so I’m still trying to figure out who everyone is inside my head . When you have been using a crutch for over 30 years things become so embedded in your daily routine that you have to reset and relearn how to live which is where I’m at . It’s been a roller coaster in the beginning but now starting to plateau. I am not there yet but I am so much. Better then the person I was ,now I’m just working on structure and finding happiness in the things that truly matter , That being said many of those “voices” for me have been silenced. I’m a lot happier now then I was three years ago but still more work to be done ……
Loyal
If I could get away from that voice I definitely would,for me that voice normally isn’t trying to help me do better its trying to knock me down or make me think negatively so for me hell no I could never hang out with the voice if it was a real person.. Maybe I need to try to train the voice to think differently…….
Jake / moon
I don’t know parts of me would talk to my other side but that other half has some crazy ideas and shit going on that I don’t completely go through with so i don’t know