Let's close our eyes.
Turn off all commentary.
For whatever is happening.
Become aware that there is a continuous commentary going on.
Something like,
This is wrong.
This is dumb.
I would rather do it this way.
I think this should happen.
That should happen.
Consciously.
For a few minutes.
Resist the urge to comment.
For a few minutes.
Long enough to only notice that life can move on.
Just fine.
Without commenting.
We all can survive just fine.
Without commenting on what is happening.
If right now,
You're thinking,
Oh,
I don't do any commentary.
That is the commentary.
Talking to yourself.
As if you're talking to someone else is the commentary.
Giving our opinions,
Judgments,
To ourselves.
As if we're giving it to someone else.
Is the commentary.
Of course,
If I told you,
Like,
How I'm telling you right now,
That we talk as if we are talking to someone else.
In our minds.
But actually,
We are talking to ourselves.
And somehow,
All of us are doing it.
Although nobody taught us.
Yet we all learned as if from the same school.
Thank you.
Thank you.
And if we dive deeper into this quote unquote self talk or commentary or inner dialogue.
What we find most of the times is that we are just regurgitating what has happened.
Or giving our own opinions,
Judgments about what is happening.
Without any conscious goal or creative endeavor.
And because we do it unconsciously.
We don't know that we are talking to ourselves.
We think we are talking to someone else.
But who else is there in your mind?
So if we go a little deeper into this exploration.
We realize that we think whoever we are talking to in our minds is actually that person.
Because knowingly we wouldn't be talking to an image of that person.
A stick figure image of that person in our minds.
Just as an example.
Let's think of someone close to us.
Our spouse,
Our child,
Our parent.
Or our boss.
Or one of our co-workers.
And try to have a 10 second conversation with them.
When I ask you to do it consciously,
It feels weird.
Because there is no way to have a new conversation with someone in our mind.
Two sided conversation.
All our opinions and judgments that we pass are one sided.
And again I am not using judgments and opinions in a way to criticize them or criticize you.
I am just highlighting the natural tendency that I have observed in me.
I don't know if it is natural,
But I have a tendency to give my opinions.
Many times not to the person in front of me,
But to the person inside my mind.
So there is no way to have a new conversation with this person in our mind.
Or this image of the person in the mind.
What we are doing is,
We are regurgitating past events.
Replaying them.
Saying,
Adding things that we couldn't say it at the time.
But deep down,
We believe that the image in our mind of that person is really them.
Once pointed out,
We might disagree that we do believe it.
But then why else would we have a conversation with an image?
It's not like talking to a photograph.
It's not like talking to a photograph.
It's not like talking to a photograph.
It's not like talking to a photograph.
It's not like talking to a photograph.
If we did not believe that the image of the person in our mind is real,
We wouldn't be replaying events and situations in our mind over and over again.
We wouldn't be imagining a future where only bad things are happening.
This will happen in the future.
There is a slight variation of the first belief I spoke about,
Where we think that the person or the image of that person in our mind is real.
When we are imagining and getting anxious,
We are imagining situations.
We are imagining ourselves in that situation.
And we believe that that situation is real and is 100% going to happen exactly the same way.
And whatever is happening in that situation is happening to you.
Not to the image,
But to you.
Because that image I believe is me.
That's how we feel anxious,
Fearful,
Sometimes sad.
And when we are replaying the events,
We might feel regret,
Anger,
Disappointment.
So this is the number one reason to investigate the voice in your head,
The mechanism of imagining and believing our imagination in our mind to be real.
95-99% of the times,
The replay or the imagination that is happening in my mind only leads to anger,
Disappointment,
Upset,
Fear,
Anxiety.
Very rarely,
I think about happy things.
I think because I did not go to a school to learn this,
I'm assuming that most of us do it this way.
And the outcome is unhappiness,
Stress,
Anxiety,
Fear.
Most of the times.
Sometimes talking to yourself,
This power of imagination can help in the creative process,
In planning process,
In celebratory process to be able to imagine what may happen,
How will it look like,
What should the sequence be,
To practice how to say things.
It's a fantastic tool that we have been endowed with.
If used,
Like that tool is supposed to be used.
But when we are in the planning creative process,
We don't forget that the imagination is not real.
We know it deeply,
But we are using it in that way to help prepare ourselves.
And I would like to encourage you to observe these nuances in your own mind,
In your own behavior.
The rampant use of imagination to create unhappiness,
And a very conscious focused use of imagination to solve problems,
To plan,
To create.
The tool is the same.
The way we use it either creates unhappiness,
Or not.
The way we use it is the same.
The way we use it is the same.
The way we use it is the same.
The way we use it is the same.
A good starting point would be to catch ourselves,
When we start feeling anxious,
Angry,
And ask ourselves,
Is it real?
And by it,
I mean the imagination.
The unhappiness is definitely real,
Because we are feeling it.
But is the imagination real?
If not,
Let's withdraw this permission to think it is real.
Thank you.
Thank you.
