Your Voice Is Not the Mean Things You Say To Your Self
That voice is called the Inner Critic. It can also be known as the mental chatter you hear throughout the day. There may be lots of negative things being said in your head: Those are not your true voice.
When you write in a guided process, that’s specifically designed to connect you to your soul’s wisdom, your body’s knowing, and your specific reason for being on this Earth, right now, the voice that comes through your writing is the one that will bring you home.
We all have to contend with an Inner Critic, which shows up in many ways. It can feel like your inner mean self, the one who’s been trying to protect you by telling you you’ll never be good enough so why even bother getting started at all, let alone make a commitment to finish. However the Inner Critic shows up for you, you can and must learn to recognize that voice for what it is and learn to not let it stop you.
When I teach, I always devote a section of my programs to the Inner Critic, because it can be deadly to my students’ writing and healing progress, and I take its threats seriously. What I want you to know today, though, is that Your Own Voice—the one you write with, the one I want you to befriend, so you can cultivate a fulfilling, life long relationship with it, is not that. It’s something else entirely.
Your Own Voice might be fierce in its insistence that you listen to it, but it’s never mean or attacking. It’s connected to your deepest truths and what you value most. That’s why I often start a writing group with the simple prompt, “What matters now?”
When you start to write about what matters to you, you remember things you may have forgotten, and you need those things. You need to know what you value in order to live your best life, and in order to be a human being who is living in the service of what is highest for humanity. It’s not that all your writing will be neat and pretty and nice, it’s that you want to begin in a centered place, so you can take your writing wherever you need to go.
Your voice is your pathway to remember your True Self. It’s a way to come home. It’s a way to push back against the mean, nasty things you say to yourself when you’re stuck and afraid and spinning around in circles. Your voice will free you to fly into the clear open space of your soul. Your soul is always waiting for you, and your voice, when you write, can be a way to take you right there, into the waiting arms of your own soul.
Begin Now: Your Writing Practice:
Pay attention to how the Inner Critic shows up in your life. Cultivating a witness consciousness is your best ally in learning how to not let the Inner Critic stop you. You develop witness consciousness through meditation, or other activities where you cultivate mindfulness.
Let your writing practice help you cultivate your witness consciousness also. Write down any mean, negative, or judging thoughts you notice yourself having, or saying to yourself. Pay close attention to the things you say to yourself around writing. When you hear or read the writing of someone you admire, do you compare yourself unfavorably to them? When you share your own writing, do you criticize yourself mercilessly?
As you write down those thoughts, be aware that it’s very common for writers to have negative, judging thoughts. You’re not the only one who is so mean to yourself!
But, just because it’s common doesn’t mean you have to allow it to continue. Those negative thoughts are more destructive than you might realize.
All you need to do to begin to shift the power away from the Inner Critic, and back to your true self, is notice the thoughts, and substitute kinder thoughts. Practice saying one nice thing to yourself for every mean thing you notice. At first this may seem a little corny, or fake, but if you make it a habit, it will change your inner environment profoundly.
A kind inner environment is what allows your true voice to flourish. It’s worth taking the time to notice and shift your thoughts from negative ones, to kind ones. Your writing will thank you!
