Written by: Eefke Bodt, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
By consciously focusing on your inner voice, you can transform it into a force for good in your life. We all have an inner voice. For some, that inner voice is a force for good. It encourages them to try new things, to accept change, and to enjoy the successes they experience in life.
For others, the inner voice is a negative force that holds them back.
Maybe it’s what’s happening to you.
When your inner voice begins to speak, it seems to focus on all of the horrible things you believe about yourself. It talks to you about your perceived lack of confidence or how you’re not intelligent enough to achieve the success that you desire. At its worst, your inner voice can actively crush your dreams for a happier and more fulfilling life.
Know that you can change your inner voice.
You can coach your inner voice so that it provides positive messages that open the door to your future success.
In this article, we examine the four steps you need to take to turn your inner voice into a powerful force for good.
1. Say "Thank you"
When your inner voice forces you to dwell on negative perceptions, saying “thank you” may be the last thing on your mind.
After all, you resent the voice for preventing you from appreciating your best qualities. And you believe that your inner voice deserves no appreciation from you. But it does.
Even when your inner voice criticizes you in the harshest way possible, you must thank it. This does not mean that you thank your voice for saying horrible things to you. Instead, you thank your inner voice for saying these things because you recognize that the only reason it’s doing so is that it cares.
Think about your childhood and how your parents often used to nag you.
They were always telling you to do your homework, tidy your room, and behave appropriately. But as annoying as that nagging may have been, it was a tool your parents used to turn you into a better person.
They nagged you because they cared.
They wanted you to succeed in life and they used somewhat negative messaging to show you where you were going wrong and what you needed to work on.
Your inner voice works in much the same way.
That’s why when it says something horrible to you, say thank you for the message. Your inner voice has just unveiled a limiting belief or area of your life that you can work on.
2. Ask for the positive intention
Upon recognizing that your inner voice is trying to help you through criticism, start to reframe what it says to you.
Instead of focusing on the criticism, ask your inner voice what its positive intent was. What was it trying to achieve by being so critical of you?
Make no mistake about the fact that it’s trying to achieve something.
The biggest mistake you can make with your inner voice is to accept what it says at face value, instead of looking for the deeper meaning behind the message.
So, search for that meaning. Ask your inner voice what it’s really trying to communicate to you.
3. Search for alternatives
Once you find the positive intention, start digging deeper.
Ask your inner voice how it wants you to be different. What can you do to change so that you’re capable of meeting the positive intention behind the message? How does it want you to feel and act so that you can overcome the harsh things that it says to you?
By doing this, you create a cooperative relationship with your inner voice, which allows you to use it to make progress.
4. Allow your mind to create a solution
Once you’ve discovered the positive intention and have highlighted some alternatives, there is one more question you must ask:
What is the next step that I need to take to make this change start now?
Don’t try to consciously answer this question yourself. Instead, free your mind to search for the answer to the question. Give it the time and space it needs to search for a solution.
Our minds love to close loops. They are at their best when they’re allowed to find solutions to problems, which allows you to close the loop and move on from the problem.
If you’re reading this article, you have likely had something – no matter how small – go wrong in your life. You may find yourself constantly questioning why bad things keep happening to you.
This questioning is a sign that your mind has not been allowed to close the loop on whatever is going wrong.
The result?
You get stuck in a cycle where it feels like things keep going wrong.
By asking the question I shared above, you give your unconscious a more constructive question to focus on. Rather than asking why bad things keep happening, which leads to your mind looping around the question, you instead encourage it to figure out what you can do to stop the bad things from happening.
It’s a subtle shift in the way that you think.
However, by making this shift you can utilize your mind’s natural predilection for solving problems. More importantly, your mind will solve these problems while placing you on a path that you want to follow.
Change your relationship with your inner voice
At times, it can feel like we’re stuck in abusive relationships with our inner voices. This is not the case.
Even at its harshest, your inner voice only wants the best for you.
Its approach may seem confusing. But by reframing what your inner voice says so that you can find the positive intention behind the message, you’re able to harness the voice as a force for good in your life.
I would like to help you to understand how to use your inner voice to create positive change.
Follow Eefke on her Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin and visit her website for more information.
Eefke Bodt, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Eefke Bodt is a mental coach and founder of the Full Potential Academy. She specializes in mind control and creating breakthroughs that lead to huge transformations in the lives of high performers. Eefke has had the opportunity to help hundreds of people get the best out of themselves and push their limits, all over the world.
The challenges her clients struggle with the most are in the areas of career, business, self-confidence, clarity, mindset and conditioning. I host the Facebook group "The Full Potential Academy" which is consistently at the top of educational training. My mission is to optimize your growth potential.
