How do you talk to yourself? How critical are you? How forgiving? How much of this self-dialogue actually makes it into the spoken narrative of your life? And what is the overall consequence? Let’s take a closer look at some of the dynamics of the inner voice, which begins in the subconscious.

The subconscious is the most powerful part of the mind and reflects our deepest and most genuine attitudes, feelings, and beliefs. These are conveyed in the way we talk to ourselves, which represents our mental state of being, our true disposition, and arises primarily from the nurturing we receive in the formative years of our upbringing. Ultimately, our inner voice is the most potent force which moment by moment, hour by hour, and day by day fashions our relationship to ourselves and the world around us.

Three important ways our inner voice effects us are:

• Confidence
• Poise
• Motivation

The words that transmit our attitudes, feelings and beliefs create an immediate and meaningful impact in our lives. Although our memories and associations to them, our life scripting—the knowns and unknowns of our existence—are stored in our subconscious as images and surface through stimulation of our thought and sensory processes, we nonetheless express them as language. Over time, certain expressions may grow to be habitual and serve to define us as individuals, even those that do not represent the true ideals, aspirations, and dreams of the person we are or wish to become.

As the mystical and beloved Persian poet, Hafiz, wisely wrote:

“The words you speak become the house you live in.”   

How we talk to ourselves greatly influences the manner in which we respond to challenges, resolve conflicts and overcome hardships, as well as how we enjoy, accept and embrace our existence. It is important to be mindful and choose our words carefully, for they are profoundly interrelated to the reality we manifest. Our inner voice, infinitely malleable and capable of being cultivated into a powerful conduit of conviction and intent, is the force of energy with which we compose our world.

©2018 by Shawn Quinlivan, C.Ht. & Cathexis Therapeutic Imagery. All rights reserved.