You Think That Voice Is You!

One of the most powerful shifts in my experience of life over the last couple years has been around my inherent doubt and pessimism. 

Here’s what happened: I more deeply distinguished that the pessimistic, judgmental inner voice that often speaks to me isn’t me! It’s simply a part of me.

I have a friend and former colleague who has told me that I’m the most optimistic person he knows. My optimism, though, isn’t my default. Pessimistic, fear-based, and judgmental thinking is my default. 

It's Not Optimism: I Consciously Create.

So what do we do about these parts of us that distract us, limit us, and perhaps frustrate us?

Here’s what we DON’T do: we don’t judge them, condemn them, or attack them. That’s being hostile to parts of ourselves. 

Being hostile toward any part of myself creates hostility in my being - and I'd never think that hostility is what I want to create in my life, yet that’s exactly what I create when I condemn, attack, and hold contempt for any parts of myself. 

So instead of being hostile to these parts of myself, I’ve learned to be compassionate. I feel and visualize my doubtful and pessimistic part as a child that’s trying to protect me. Doing so, for me, awakens innate compassion within me. The adult that I am gets to be compassionate, caring, and loving toward this young and scared part doing its thing to protect me.

See, that pessimistic voice is a part of me, it’s not me. Yours is also not you, but a part of you.

What hasn’t worked for me: fighting it or playing the victim to it. 

What is working for me: giving it room, being compassionate and gentle with it, and creating optimism right by its side.

That protective part of me can either be a burden or an opportunity - an opportunity to step up and to love myself and the universe more, to create more optimistic and inspiring stories, interpretations, and visions.

That voice you’ve been listening to isn’t you, and it’s not your enemy either. It’s a protective expression of self-love, one of the most powerful, and if we treat it harshly, we’re growing contempt in the garden of our soul. 

I don’t want contempt growing in the garden of my soul, and neither do you. What would you rather grow in that wondrous, profound, and beautiful gift of a soul that exists as who you really are?

Much Love. ❤️