Mind the Voice in Your Head

There is a voice in your head that you identify with. After all, if it isn't you then who exactly is talking? The voice in your head worries endlessly about everything that could go wrong and is scheming how to get things and also beats you up over past mistakes. Well, this voice is not you, it is just the ego in action, using your ability to reflect on the past and to anticipate the future to take you for a joy ride and a guilt trip. The good news is, there is an Ancient Voice buried deep down inside of you. You can connect with that Voice but it takes time. You must be very still and must learn how not to get distracted by what it going on in your head.

Our brain has evolved from the animal brain which mostly operates in the now. We have the ability to reflect on the past so to make sure that we don't repeat our mistakes, very much as we are able to anticipate future outcomes to be better prepared for it. Our brains allow us to abstract, use symbols, make decisions based on reasoning, calculations, etc. Symbolically, we ate from the Tree of Knowledge and when that happened, we unfortunately lost that ongoing connection with the Source in the process. The voice that always speaks first and loudly has taken over. But you can get the Ancient Voice back.

The voice in your head tells you that you are different from everyone else, that you need to worry, protect yourself, scheme to get things. This voice tells you that you need to work hard to be worthy of love. The ego makes comparisons. When you think you are better than others, you feel arrogant; if you are worse than others, you feel bad about yourself. This ongoing measuring, comparing and contrasting in your brain creates tension and angst. Do this for a few decades at an accelerated pace and you will get really depressed.

Don't get us wrong. Using your brain is of course useful. Eating from the Tree of Knowledge has brought us a long way. All we are saying is to use your brain for all the technical and useful purposes, do not let the voice in your head tell you anything about your interpersonal relations as well as your destiny. Leave all these decisions up to the Tao. All you have to do is to reconnect to life and your Ancient Voice despite the loud babbling in the background. Congratulations! If you have come to this point, it means you will soon break free from the insanity that has plagued you for so long. The voice in your head is not the real you and you can strip out of it like an old set of used and smelly clothes.

The voice in your head wants to take you for a ride. It promises you a pleasure ride, but each trip always ends up in tears. This voice wants to be in control, wants to map out everything. But then when unexpected things happen along the way the voice will create stress. People who follow the unrelenting commands of this voice will sometimes succeed, sometimes fail, but will always end up with a headache. As you age you will withdraw more and more from life as you learn that there is perfect control if you don't interact with anyone and if you don't do anything. But if you withdraw from life you die. Life is to be accepted and enjoyed. Embrace life with open arms and the Tao will present you so many impressions along the way that the load voice in your head will naturally be silenced.

The voice in your head is always expecting something, always looking forward to, always anticipating. The Course in Miracle states that an outstanding characteristic of the ego is that whenever you have reached your goal you will still not be happy. That is what the voice does, always reminding you that the carrot is still dangling in front of the donkey.

The voice is also very good at judging. I ask you, have you ever met anyone who was truly on your level? There are those who are above you in the hierarchy be it professional, social or even spiritual. How different this voice is from the claim of the Course of Miracles, namely that we are all soul siblings, no one is above, no one is below - we are all Daughters and Sons of God.

Our education system wants to make you smart, fast, intelligent and efficient. All we do is to feed that voice in our head. You will be an intellectual. You will dissect what is whole only to find after decades of labor that what you have in your hands is dead. You will get caught up in an imaginary and artificial world of the mind and you will get lost in it. But in a weird way that is good. Send all the students of the world to Harvard and MIT, for these institutions will not only make the students smarter, but will also generate so much pressure with that ever continuing rate race to climb up the intellectual and social ladder that many will lose their way. That is unfortunately exactly what the homecoming process entails. You need to get lost first before you will look for a new way. Unfortunately you need to drive into a wall first before looking for a new direction. Getting lost instils the hunger in you to listen to the Ancient Voice.You will enter our post-graduate studies and the school master - the Tao - will teach you how to become children again and how to regain your innocence and be always full of joy, laughter and serenity.

The Tao is all-knowing. The Tao operates in the past and the future via the Now. But the Tao is nevertheless the polar opposite of the intellect. The Tao only deals in the present, the Tao never judges, never compares; gives you everything that you need , but not what you want because you don't really want it anyway. The Tao is beyond duality; the Tao is non-linear, creative, imaginative, always changing and in the end nothing but pure love.

So how to detach from the voice in your head and connect with the Tao? There are some signpost that you can watch out for and you can learn to get your life back. Watch out especially for these signs: 

1. When you feel you are in big conflict and experience struggle in everything you do. If you feel this way, most of time you are geting caught up in mind games. Once you are aware of this fact you can step right out of it. Just listen how insane some of these mental connections are. It is just a voice, not you.

2. When you feel fear and anxiety. Most likely you are contemplating all kind of downside scenarios. Can you come up with an equal number of upside scenarios just to create a balance? The point is when you follow the Tao and embrace life with open arms you will have little time to think. Instead you will learn to accept whatever comes your way without thinking much about it.

3. You are telling yourself that you are bad, miserable, unloved, a loser....you feel bad about yourself and start attacking yourself. If you notice that the voice is telling you these stories, know that this is an impostor speaking. God loves you, as do your soul siblings who are waiting patiently to interact with you. Just step out of your mind games and open up your eyes to a new reality.

4. You feel resentful and guilty. Your mind goes back to the past and you lose the connection with the Now that way. Well the past is dead, wake up and join the living instead.

You don't need to silence your mind, just learn when to use it. You also need to learn how to embrace the Now - the Tao will teach you that. We will present some practices that will allow you to disconnect from the voice in your head, so please look out for those in coming weeks. Perhaps you already want to check out The Worry List (zeitgeistinma.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-worry-list.html) as a first practical step to silence your voice. Do not worry, you will get back your life and everywhere you will look there will be joy, love and laughter.

By Christian and Su-Zhen