ICRAVE Inner Dialogue Awareness

What is your Inner Dialogue and beliefs?

• It’s very important to pay attention to what we say to yourself about your self.

What goes on in your head? What is your inner dialogue? What does the voice in your head say?

• “Shoot, I can’t remember her name.  What is her name?  Sally? Sue?   She just told me yesterday, what’s the matter with me?  This is going to be embarrassing.”
• “I have a big day tomorrow, I need to fall asleep.  I need to get up early.”

Do you notice when you talk negatively to your self?

• “I’m stupid” “There is no way that I can do that.”
• “I’m ugly” “Why would he/she ever be interested in me?”

Mental dialogue in your head never stops, it keeps going and going

• How much if it is true?
• How does it decide what to say?
• How much of what it says is important?
• Which part is you?

The voice takes both sides of the conversation.

• It doesn’t care which side it takes, as long as it gets to keep on talking.

Re-Source: Relinquish

You are not this voice

• Stop feeling that one thing it says is you and another thing it says is not you
  • It is not you.   You are the one who hears the voice
  • You are the one who notices it talking
• If you are looking at three objects (flower pot, book, and a photograph.  Which of these is you?
  • You would say, “none of them, I’m the one looking at the object.”  It doesn’t matter what you put in front of me, it’s always going to be me looking at it.”
  •  You are the subject perceiving various objects
  • This the same as hearing the voice inside, it doesn’t make any difference what it is saying.  You are the one who is aware of it. 

There is nothing more important to true growth than realizing that you are not the voice of the mind. You are the one who hears it.

• If you don’t understand this, you will try and figure out which parts of the voice is the real you.
• People go through many changes trying to find themselves and which of these voices (aspects of their personality) is who they really are. 
  • The answer is none of them

Be mindful of how you are thinking and what you are actually saying to ourselves about ourselves.

Much of what the voice says is meaningless. A lot of the talking is just a waste of time and energy.

• It is worry, distraction and neurosis
• Billions of things are going on in this world.  You can say and think as much as you want but it is still going to keep on happening.
  • Your thoughts have far less impact on this world than you think.
    • If you are willing to be objective and watch all your thoughts, you will realize that they have no effect on anything except you. 
  • They are simply making you feel better or worse about what is going on now, what has gone on in the past, or what will go on in the future.
    • If you spend your time hoping it doesn’t rain tomorrow – you are wasting your time. 
      • Your thoughts don’t change the rain.

Why does this voice exist if so much of it is unnecessary?

• Understand why it says what it says when it says it
  • Some cases, it is like a tea kettle
    • There is a build-up of energy that needs to be released.
    • When there is a build-up of nervous, fearful, or desire based energy inside, the voice becomes extremely active.
      • This is easy to see when you are angry with some and feel like telling them off.
      • Watch how much the inner voice tells them off before you even see them.

The real cause of problems is not life itself, it’s the commotion the mind makes about life that really causes problems.

Affirm positive beliefs about who you are.

• “I am committed to making a contribution to this world”
• “I am deserving to be here.”
• “I am enough.”

craving and resource mostly from “The Untethered Soul” by Michael Singer