Our inner voices aren’t simply our thoughts. They’re an internalized collection of input from society, culture, parents, teachers, friends, partners, bosses, and other influences. While our inner voices aren’t exactly us, they’re part of us, and that means we have some control over their volume.The critical inner voice isn’t the only voice in our heads, according to psychologists and neuroscientists. Just like that, you shut yourself down. You reject your own creative impulses and dreams before you’ve even had a chance to explore them. Besides missing out on some potentially life-changing adventures, there’s another more insidious consequence. 

Your true inner intuitive voice is one which encourages you, gives you hope, and pushes you to trust and believe in yourself. Conflict within oneself is often caused by duelling voices inside of each one of us. Listening to your true inner voice — often the voice of understanding, support, and self-assurance — can help lessen and even resolve internal conflict. 

3 Key steps to train your inner voice:

Pay attention to your who’s talking:
The first step is becoming aware of the voices in our heads and what they’re saying. Can you identify an inner bully and an inner friend? It can be uncomfortable or embarrassing to recognize the voice of our inner bully, speaking to us in ways we’d never speak to others. People often listen to their critical inner voice without realizing it. It comes through almost as background noise, so they just accept much of its commentary as reality. It’s important to become more conscious of the moments when your critical inner voice starts nagging at you. Try to notice when its undermining insults and instructions chime in throughout the day. “You look so tired/fat/ugly/stupid.” “You’re annoying people.” “You can’t do this.” “You’re such a mess.” “What’s the matter with you?”

Give it a name:
Giving your inner critic a name can help you separate yourself from it.

Challenge your critical inner voice:
It’s very important when you write down your voices not to let your self-hating or self-shaming thoughts take over. The fourth and perhaps most essential step is, therefore, to respond to these statements from a realistic and compassionate perspective. Write down a more caring and honest response to each of your critical inner voice attacks. This time, use “I” statements. “I am a worthy person with many fun-loving qualities. I have a lot to offer.” As you do this exercise, be diligent in shutting out any rebuttals your inner critic tries to sneak in. Make a commitment to keep writing about yourself with the respect and regard you would have for a friend.

Tame your inner voice:
Finally; on daily basis; keep deleting these critical voices and replace these limiting voices with assertive and positive affirmations. A very powerful technique is; When the critical inner voice emerges give a strong command to this voice; something like ‘Cancel- Cancel’. When the powerful inner guiding voice emerges say ‘Thank you’.

Bottomline!
The more you listen to and believe in what your true inner voice is telling you about your value and your potential, the stronger that voice will become. And the more you disregard the voices that can interfere with your resolve to succeed, the quieter those voices will become. Saying no to the voices that are judgmental and make you feel ashamed will help you stop being critical of your failures and afraid of success. By finding and strengthening your true inner voice, you will be able to ignore internal conflict and pick out the one that speaks the truth.Throughout the entire process of disempowering this internal enemy, there is one thing we need to practice as an opposite action that will strengthen our real self, and that is self-compassion.

Love and light,
Manali