Your Voice

Happy Wednesday & Welcome to your mid-week pick-me-up!

I recently attended a conference and one of the keynote speakers was sharing about the ways our brains create stories of meaning out of what we experience. I also recently ran across this video that speaks to the same reality.

In both the words of the speaker, and the message of the video, one thing came through - the stories in our heads aren't always as accurate as we want and think they are! Too often they can be based on assumptions we make about others, or we take things on ourselves from external expectations that may have more to do with cultural norms than actual reality.  

Following the example from the above video, we may make up a story about the person who just stole our parking spot that is based more on assumptions than actual facts.  In that situation the story we created was based on our assumptions about the other person, which it turns out, wasn't the whole story at all!  

But this is often even more true about the story we embrace about ourselves from our own Voice inside of us.  Did you know that the person you listen to the most in any given day is actually yourself?!  And that voice isn't always true either!  For example, the speaker at the conference told a really sad and tragic story about an incident they had in college that negatively shaped the story they were carrying around about themselves for years. Something happened externally that was based on some terrible, unrealistic cultural norms, that caused this person to listen to their own voice tell them they weren't enough for years!  But, they eventually came to realize that the story their own voice was telling them wasn't actually true and they got to be in control of that Voice inside of them and what it was saying.  Then they dropped this powerful gem:

Since the person you listen to the most on any given day is yourself, Be Nice!  

Wow!  How many times do we allow our internal Voice to say negative things about us that aren't actually true? Ways we don't think we measure up to this expectation or that reality? How often is that Voice creating a story that is based more on assumptions or some unrealistic cultural norm, and what would it be like if we decided to be kind to ourselves and actually respond to ourselves with some love and grace?

I wish I could say I was a master at this, but I am actually right in this boat with you! However, it sure feels like it could make a big impact on us if we remembered to just be kind to ourselves!

Here's to reminding Our Voice to be nice this week!

Be Well,

Stephen

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