When I first read about the “voice in my head” in the Untethered Soul, it was very enlightening.

The voice in the head is also known as inner speech, internal dialogue, self-talk, inner chatter, running thoughts, and even “Monkey Mind” for its restless character.

I’m not sure if this is true for everyone, but it is said that for a lot of people, most thoughts are either in the form of words or images.

(Do let me know if your mind works differently! I would be very curious.)

The voice may sound like your own, or in the voice of other people with different tones, depending on the context and emotions, although sometimes it is not exactly a string of words but an idea.

For example, you may see an amazingly crafted porcelain cup and think to yourself:

”Wow that is so nice! Feels great to hold too.”

“I wonder how much it is. WOW I can’t believe it’s $1000 USD, I’d better not drop it!”

You might hear another voice: “Who would buy this anyway? I’d be constantly afraid of damaging it. A crack would be a very costly mistake.”

“But I hope one day I’d be so rich that I can buy all the stuff I like!”

And then another voice may show up: “Seriously you will never be that rich”.

Within a matter of seconds, there are actually different voices going through a lot of talking and listening at the same time. If we observe the voices in our mind, we may notice that they can take both sides of the conversation, sometimes arguing between them.

What if instead of praising a beautiful item, the voice suddenly talks about unpleasant things or people. If it is disturbing, you may feel the need to shut it up. However, having the thought of “let's not think about that bossy person at work anymore” is just another voice.

We are so used to it that we probably don’t think about why the voices are there in the first place. After all, we have lived with them inside our head for so many years.

Even if you don’t exactly hear thoughts as voices, you are likely accustomed to widely different ideas appearing in your mind, ranging from praises to criticisms and happy thoughts to sad thoughts.

Do you ever get annoyed by all the chatter inside? Imagine they are living beings outside of you, imagine they are your roommates that you cannot get rid of, who would live with you from birth to death, would you want roommates like that?

To be continued...