“Q for LiYana: How to clear the chatter in my brain & hear my inner voice & trust what I’m hearing?”
This juicy Q just came across my desk, and I want to give my A to it here. Or, maybe better to say “I want to give my my R to it here.” I definitely don’t have “The Answers,” but I’ve got some “responses.” May they be useful for connecting you to your own answers.
So, my R for part one of the great Q above.
She’s asking, “OK, I got as far as, listen to my inner voice, but which ONE of my inner voices? The voices from my chattering mind are different from my inner knowing? How’s that? How can I tell them apart?”
Ever been driving between towns or across state lines and the radio station you’ve been grooving on, say National Public Radio, begins to blend with another radio station, say Christian devotional rock music?
Mind chatter is like tuning into 13 blended radio stations at once. It’s yippy, and a mash-up. A little like an acid trip. Doesn’t stop to take a breath. Might be useful for you to hear, or it might be a complete distraction. Might be a piece of your truth, or it might dump you into the roadside ditch of self-doubt. Hard to tell when you are tuning in to 13 blended radio stations at once.
I think “mind chatter” or “mind voices” are what we hear (or sense) when we tune into what I call “collective mind.” Collective mind is very wise. Mind voices help us do nifty things like advance civilization. Assemble iPhones. Make great graphs and pie charts. Navigate rush-hour traffic. Rock a heated political debate. Analyze things, including stock market risks and second date risks.
I think your “inner voice” or “voice of your inner knowing” is what you hear when you tune into what I call “collective soul.” Collective soul is a whole other echelon of wise. Collective soul wants to incarnate, through your body, into the world. Inner knowing voices kindly point out your blind spots, and keep you looking at ‘em until you find your way through ‘em.
These voices ring the bell of your truth. Help you make impossible choices. Show you visions so beautiful and terrifying you know it will take everything you’ve got to bring them into being. Slap you on the ass. Light a fire under said ass. Remind you that your intuitive nudges are the answers to someone’s prayers, and that you are profoundly worthy and loved.
If we are fishies, swimming around in an incalculably huge ocean, collective soul is the water.
It is above us and below us, we breathe it, sleep in it, and without it feels like we are about to die, but often don’t give it much notice.
Ever been hiking on a high hill or mountain, and then over the clear, crisp breeze you hear a conversation that is impossibly far away but somehow crystalline clear to your ear? Ever been out walking on the sultry summer street of the ‘hood and catch the deep, resonant bass of a song drifting out of a low-slung car passing by? This is what the voice of your inner knowing sounds and feels like. Clear and refined, yet deep and felt. Sometimes recognizable words, but often feelings that reverberate in your bones.
The voice of your inner knowing is buoyant, yet anchored by gravitas.
I’m getting all poetic on you, because the voices of your inner knowing are ones that only you can sense, and they have a unique signature for you, very different than mine will for me. You hear them by listening, you sense them by feeling, with the same sensing organs you use to take in poetry.
The voices of your inner knowing usually load slower than mind chatter, requiring you to slow the F down in your life, to make space, to listen, and to respect parts of you that you’ve gotten used to fearing and tried too long to conquer. It’s good work.
Here’s the other thing.
The voices of your inner knowing are felt in your body, along with all the feelings you’ve gotten really good at not feeling. Hearing the call of collective soul requires you to be in your body, so that along with your inner knowing you also feel the stuff that seemed like it would kill you if you felt it, back then.
But you are now strong enough, supple enough, to do this. In fact, you were made for this.
Eventually, you’ll get the hang of it.
Eventually, you will feel comfortable in your skin.
Eventually, it will come clear for you, the channel of mind chatter distinct from the channel of inner knowing.
And, my R to part two of the great Q above.
She’s asking, “OK, once I’ve discerned my mind chatter from inner knowing, how will I know that voice is trustable?”
To which I respond, trust the voices of your inner knowing to WHAT? Always give you the “correct” answer, so you get an A+ in life? So you never screw up? Never make a mess? Never offend anyone, get hate mail, or feel regret?
The voices of your inner knowing aren’t prone to piping up with winning lottery ticket numbers or tenure in the exclusive, expensive Lovable and Valuable Forever Country Club (at least not for me). They won’t inoculate you from pain or struggle or debt or feeling like an ass. You won’t always get it right. That’s beside the point.
The point is to connect you with the channel of collective soul, and to connect you to your unique inner knowing who, tirelessly and happily, comes bearing messages from collective soul.
Collective soul isn’t interested in you hitting the cosmic bull’s eye, your inner voice is interested in you telling your truth. Growing. Expanding. Learning. Making daily communion with the reason you came here — why the heck you bothered suiting up in flesh and bones in the first place.
And knowing, as one of my clients puts it, “the deep-seated satisfaction that only comes through welcoming home a part of you you’ve exiled.”
Welcome.
Now your turn.
Come jam with us in the Facebook discussion and let us know why you think you can’t trust the voice of your inner knowing — and also, why you feel you can.
Clearly,
PS: Come check out my recent Facebook Live videos on this topic:
“Ever feel trapped in your head? This is why and what to do about it.”
If you haven’t already, remember to “like” the page, so we can notify you the next time I’m “live!” and there is a new, hot-off-the-griddle video for you.
PPS: I’m about to go deeeeeeep into my writing cave this fall and winter, and have 2 little ol’ slots opening soon for private coaching/mentoring. That’ll be it for many moons.
Start here if you feel one of these slots has your name on it.
Photo by Julia Maryanska