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Wahoo4UVA

- 2 years ago

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Who, or what, is the "inner voice"?

On my drive home tonight, I was pondering something I've been struggling with for a while, posing questions about it. Just as I asked myself the questions, my inner voice immediately "answered" them (introduced a different thought than my own). Although the answer received is what I'd like to see happen (I suppose, but maybe it is just wishful thinking?), my rational mind doesn't believe what this inner voice is saying will actually happen. I found myself thinking, in response to it, "Who ARE you and what the hell do YOU know?!" What is the inner voice? Subconscious, ego, God/Universe, spirit, soul. . .something else? What does it know that you (and by "you" I mean the person at the forefront, the one who drives things, makes the decisions, the rational mind) don't? What is it's awareness compared to yours, is it any wiser?

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it's also the song stuck in your head telling you how to think. try it.

@wahoo4uva it's you, just different?
it's unexplainable, although i guess it is fun to explain.

it's to much. I can't even type fast enough. My inner self is crazy. I argue with myself and then tell myself to shut up.

"Although the answer received is what I'd like to see happen (I suppose, but maybe it is just wishful thinking?)..." To me, that's inner voice, the first voice, the voice clear of the negativity that so often comes right after a good-feeling thought and squashes it, i.e. what's in the brackets. I believe each one of us came equipped with our own personal compass, along with livers and spleens, and that our entire lives emerge day by day out of the thoughts we hold in our heads. Following the compass is what tells us which thoughts are better to keep than others. In other words, your wishful thinking will serve you well. None of the negativity will, and I would propose that there is nothing rational about it. The negativity that chronically undermines that compass is continually pounded into us by the outside. "Who ARE you and what the hell do YOU know?!" This did not originate with you. Kids don't emerge equipped with self-doubt; it's taught to them. I used to hear that line, too, but not since I realized it's not my inner voice. I know that, very simply, because the thought feels bad. I've reached a point where I have made things very simple for myself. (This idea did not originate with me.) No matter what comes up, no matter what decision has to be made, no matter anything, I only ask, "Does the thought I'm having about this feel good to me or bad?" I've decided that it's the only important question, and that continually tending to it will only create good things around me. If the thought feels good, I keep it, whether it makes "sense" or not; if it feels good, it's the inner voice. If it feels bad, I replace it with a thought that feels good, or at least better on my way to good. This has become my only rule in life. I've been working on this for a couple of years now - it takes a while to excavate what doesn't serve you; it takes a while to recognize what doesn't serve you, and to trust the bad feeling that identifies it as such. It's an ongoing thing, but it's habit-forming so it takes less and less effort, becomes fun, and the improvement in my inner quality of life is immeasurable. And Iately I've been noticing interesting little changes on "the outside". I am starting to have a serious good time.

It perhaps depends upon whether a "clear space" is left in one's soul that isn't packed to the rafters with "self"? If there's nothing but self in the house, any voice heard will simply be self wearing any one of many disguises of conscious, subconscious, ego and other "apparatus of the psyche". It would seem reasonable that if room has been left in one's "house" for something other than just self, an inner voice might represent communication from something other than self. So "who" or "what" that inner voice is, would depend entirely upon how one has chosen to lay out their "house".

its so nice that we can differentiate between an inner voice and schizophrenia... so many people who have troubling voices get detained but I have heard on the BBC one story that really made me sit up and take notice... one woman in Britain was very nearly detained in this way until she mentioned that the two voices who had been telling her to get to hospital included a Dr Jenkins and a Dr Conimoto... It just so happened that the doctor on duty had heard of Dr Conimoto - a brain specialist who had died some three years previously... he sat the woman down and asked what the voices had told her exactly. She said the voices had told her she had a very small tumour developing in her brain and that she needed to get to the hospital (this particular hospital) they did a scan and found nothing - she went away, but came back a week later saying the voices had told her it needed to be a high resolution MRI scan. The doctors were at first dismissive but eventually this one young doctor who had seen her before managed to persuade them to do the more expensive scan... and they found a tiny tumour that was malignant. After its removal the voices never came back to the woman... so what is the inner voice? I don't know - but all too often it is what Eckhart Tolle calls "The Pain Body" the attachments that you have developed over the years desperately trying to prevent you from living joyfully in the present without it...

Your own thoughts. And these are the results of processes initiated by your ego, your superego and last but not least your id.

My inner voice - whatever it is - usually just seems to want me to slow down and think about a decision a bit longer. And it's usually right. Sometimes, though, I think it's a teeny tiny creature running around my brain, finding the lost scrap of information and presenting it to me at 3AM, when I waken from a sound sleep and suddenly know the thing I've been trying to remember. Either way, it's a benefit.

Jimeny Cricket?

it is the cynical sarcastic optimist that loves to state the obvious

Your soul....I think :-)

Without being too flippant, the voice it sounds like you're describing is very much like Jiminy Cricket in Pinnochio. Rather like a conscience, but also a research assistant, and a part of the team. Or does that make no sense at all? There are also, in some instances, voices that are psychotic episodes, but it doesn't sound like that's what you're talking about.

I've gotten much more familiar with my 'inner voice'/'second thoughts' in recent years. By familiar, I mean that while I strongly suspect it's always been there, I've only recently more openly listened to it. To me it is the voice of the person I would be if I was stripped of all the masks I wear, all the lies I tell myself, and everything else I pretend to be. To me it is raw, uncensored, and pure honesty. It's a voice that will tell me the things I may not want to, or be otherwise unable, to hear. A voice that will step in and whisper the truth, to remind me of who and what I really am, and what I truly and most deeply think and feel.

I don't know what your experience was, but I would say that that voice that said "who are you and what the hell do you know" THAT is the ego, the voice of reason or "perception". But what you call the "inner voice" now that is the soul.

We all have an inner critic that does nothing but criticize. But there may be another voice that speaks softly or whispers. It may not be like a real voice you can hear. It may be an awareness or a new thought/feeling. It may suggest. It may warn. You may find yourself thinking that there is no outward indication that there is any danger. The voice knows more than your conscious self. Is it just your subconscious? Is it your guardian angel? Is it your late grandma? Is is intuition? Whatever it is, it is a blessing. Listen. Heed.

you talking about the voice in the head? I should be consumed with my thoughts. sometimes I still am but when i created some space for my self. I feel that inner peace and not the inner voice (which is mostly negative and repetitive) There is a positive you can take from this. You have noticed the voice in your head know you don't have to take it to seriously and go beyond thinking to a new dimension. all the best on your journey.

@Wahoo4UVA Fairfax, Virginia

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SoulPancake

Wahoo4UVA

Who, or what, is the "inner voice"?

DanielPotashov

it's also the song stuck in your head telling you how to think. try it.

DanielPotashov

@wahoo4uva it's you, just different?
it's unexplainable, although i guess it is fun to explain.

TinkPawn

it's to much. I can't even type fast enough. My inner self is crazy. I argue with myself and then tell myself to shut up.

SharonM

Griz

flashbanding

chantarella

Your own thoughts. And these are the results of processes initiated by your ego, your superego and last but not least your id.

idamines

Guitardds

Jimeny Cricket?

calholli

it is the cynical sarcastic optimist that loves to state the obvious

ChesterMinit

Your soul....I think :-)

PopeSkippyXVI

Skippy

Britta714

I don't know what your experience was, but I would say that that voice that said "who are you and what the hell do you know" THAT is the ego, the voice of reason or "perception". But what you call the "inner voice" now that is the soul.

DAISYDO

I_AM

Who, or what, is the "inner voice"?

it's also the song stuck in your head telling you how to think. try it.

@wahoo4uva it's you, just different?it's unexplainable, although i guess it is fun to explain.

it's to much. I can't even type fast enough. My inner self is crazy. I argue with myself and then tell myself to shut up.

Your own thoughts. And these are the results of processes initiated by your ego, your superego and last but not least your id.

Jimeny Cricket?

it is the cynical sarcastic optimist that loves to state the obvious

Your soul....I think :-)

I don't know what your experience was, but I would say that that voice that said "who are you and what the hell do you know" THAT is the ego, the voice of reason or "perception". But what you call the "inner voice" now that is the soul.

What's Next?

@wahoo4uva it's you, just different?
it's unexplainable, although i guess it is fun to explain.