The Little Voice

I’m reading the Untethered Soul, by Michael Singer. Oprah talked about it on her Super Soul Sunday podcast. She loved it. So I took it out of the library. I’ve only read the first two chapters so far.

For the first time, I can sort of understand “the little voice in our heads.”

The voice does not make sense. It’s always talking. It never shuts up. And, it argues both sides of an argument.

I knew we had a voice, but I didn’t really get it.

I still thought that some of my thoughts were real. I didn’t distinguish them as just noise. I’d get upset by them. And need reassurance that they weren’t real. Don’t ask me why. But I did.

Now, after reading the book, I compare the voice to a person sitting on a park bench talking to themselves. Babbling on and on. Never stopping. Not making any sense.

I’d look at them and think they were crazy.

But that’s like what happens inside our heads.

That voice just keeps talking. Arguing both sides of the argument. On and on and on. It reminds me of Archie Bunker yelling at Edith. “Do you ever stop talking?” (I’m making that up – don’t know if it was actually Archie!)

No wonder I feel crazy sometimes. It’s a constant monologue that I’ve been listening to. It would drive anyone crazy.

The trick, Michael Singer says, is to be an observer of it. Not a participant.

My friend used to say, “Don’t Engage,” when referring to someone who could get me crazy and I won’t name names. “Don’t respond. Ignore them.”

Well, that’s true for us and our brains. Don’t engage. Just watch it.

So when I’m wondering about a certain person and what they are doing, it’s just my brain doing it’s thing. It doesn’t really matter.

Or worrying about my kids, my work, the future, money, etc.

I can just watch my voice talking. Like I’d watch the person on the park bench.

We will see. It sounds easy. I’m just not sure that it is.

Or is that my little voice saying that?