So what’s on the agenda for this week, well I thought it would be good to cover a topic that all of us can work on.

Everyone in life has that inner voice in their head, sometimes it can be encouraging and at other times it can be very judgemental. It can seem as if our minds are made up of two people’s thoughts. This self-talk is something that we must learn to use to our advantage.

The aim of this post is to get you to recognise the clear distinction between the two voices, know why they are there and what to do about them. When that voice feels to you to be highly judgemental and negative, being overly critical of our decisions and efforts. Then that is the voice of the parent. The parent’s voice is the one we want to minimise as its heavy handed appraisal of us isn’t healthy or constructive.

The other voice is that of the friend, this one is understanding and encouraging of what we are doing. Very often we encounter roadblocks or setback in our lives, but what the voice of the friend says is similar to what our actually friends would say. If we try and fail, they will acknowledge our efforts while also telling us not to give and to continue with our endeavours.

Recently, a close friend of mine started to write a daily reflection of his conscious thoughts. I had of read through them and it was quite clear at which voice was speaking at each point. Line by line, each one could be attributed to one of the voices. As I outlined above, those that were more forgiving were easily traced back to that of the friend. While the lines where his thoughts were too harsh on himself, the parent was at play.

When that voice in your starts talking, try to ascertain which voice is speaking. If it is the parent’s voice, then distract yourself or allow the voice of the friend to take over. That last suggestion is difficult at first, but the more you do it, the easier it becomes.

Hope this helps, it sure has been a revelation for myself recently.

Thanks again to all my Hedites.