Have you ever noticed? There’s a voice inside your head. It is talking constantly and won’t ever shut up. In fact, the more you tell it to shut up, the more it’ll talk. This voice is narrating your experience. Even though the experience itself would be enough, you always get the narration on top of it. And it’ll pick out specific things to comment on. Those things are usually based on your personal preferences or your past experiences. If you see someone doing something you don’t like, you can be sure that the voice will comment on it. It might still talk about it hours or days later.

But that voice is not you. Many people believe it is themselves talking inside their head, but if it was, couldn’t you just turn it off? If you ever tried to turn it off, you will know that it’s almost impossible. The voice is like another person who is always with you. Imagine having someone follow you around wherever you go, talking to you. Even if you put on headphones, the person will still be able to talk to you. But it is separate from you. Realizing that the voice inside your head is not you is an important step in spiritual growth.

The best we can do is to not engage with it. Let it talk as much as it wants, but you’re not forced to listen. If you perform an action as a result of the voice talking, you’re letting the voice win. Make sure that the things you do are actually things you want to do, not things your voice told you to do. If you continue to let go of it and do your own thing, the voice might even get quieter. At times, it might actually stop talking for a while. But remember that the goal is not the end result, but rather the path, the practice. The goal is learning to let go.

This post was heavily inspired by the first chapter of The Untethered Soul by Michael A. Singer.1 There are many more things inside of that book that I would like to digest in form of blog posts. For example, you might have asked yourself: “If I’m not the voice inside my head, who am I?” These are the things discussed in that book. Note that I’m only at the beginning of my path. I’m writing this as I learn, not necessarily having fully implemented them in my life. But writing about these things helps me clarify them and understand them more deeply. Also, I’m very interested in what you think about it. Do you think I’m crazy, or does it make sense to you? Let us discuss in the comments below!

  1. The last time I read the chapter was, I would guess, about a month ago. So this is not a summary of that chapter, but rather what I took from it, the things that managed to stick. ↩