We have a picture of ourselves as a decent, kind and caring person who wouldn’t say bad things to or about other people. Yet, have you ever considered what would happen if someone invented a machine that meant all our thoughts could be heard out loud? That would perhaps bring about a few awkward moments (understatement of the year). Not only would we be forced to become aware of our constant ‘opinion’ about other people, but we would also hear how badly we speak about ourselves.
What feeds us those thoughts in the first place? Could we ever consider that it is like a radio station we have tuned into, and we have bullies talking to us, feeding us these thoughts? We are so familiar with the radio station because it might have been there when we were growing up, at home, in school, through friends.
Perhaps we have forgotten that we can simply change the channel.
Yet, if it was that easy, would we not all have clocked it and changed the channel by now?? The constant chatter in our heads is so familiar we can believe the voices coming through this channel are ours. Furthermore, everyone is listening to their own chatter, so no one points out that having that constant conversation in your head is actually not normal, let alone the potential that it is not you but a 'radio station' you have tuned into.
Perhaps this is like the story of ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’ with the child who calls out the lie that everyone is so familiar with that no-one speaks about it. Having a constant chatter in our heads is tiring, unhealthy and affects our physical as well as mental and emotional health. We have an opportunity to call that out for ourselves and question where these voices are coming from, what channel have we attuned ourselves to? And where is the off switch???
These thoughts are NOT ours. It is not us, we know they are not us because when we hear harsh, unkind words spoken to someone we love or precious to us, it jars with us that they are spoken to like that. We wouldn't want it for them, so why would we allow these words to pour into us unchecked? Why has it been so hard to hear the way we have allowed ourselves to be spoken to and see that we can say no to that?
Why have we not changed the radio station?
Just as we move to change the dial, we move to change the internal dial or what we receive in our thoughts.
Could our every-day movements be what changes the dial? For example, the simple process of going through a door. If every door we opened, every door handle we touched, communicated to us, what could it say? Do we notice a harshness or can we notice a gentleness in that every-day activity?
These are small movements, but all the small movements add up to the sum total at the end of the day. We don't have to move hardness and end up with a hard body and harsh thoughts. We can change our movements and our thoughts can change as a result. The simplest way to change the 'radio station'.
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