Listening to Your Inner Voice

We all have an inner voice.  It arguably originates as a part of the fight or flight response from our most primitive brain development.  It is the voice that tells us not to walk down a certain street, when everything otherwise appears normal.  It is the voice that tells us we do not resonate with certain people or things, though sometimes we might not be able to verbally articulate why.

The key word often associated with this inner voice is instinct.  Instincts are the patterns of natural tendencies or inclinations that all humans possess.  Some of us are more ‘in-tune’ with our instincts and over time learn to trust them and make better decisions.  Others of us dumb down this part of our nature and leave it as an unused and/or underdeveloped muscle in our arsenal of decision making abilities.

Over time, human nature has developed through countless experiences.  From the discovery of harnessing fire to understanding nanotechnology, we build on one experience after another.  These, and many other factors, contribute to the innate ability to understand situations when we otherwise have no other data to support our knowledge point(s). 

Often called a ‘sixth sense,’ this instinct works with the other five senses (touch, taste, sight, hearing, and smell).  This additional sense is an operator in human consciousness, and it follows logically that our magnificent minds internally play a part in decoding our environments, inclusive of the external listed above.

          We will look at breaking through the noise and better understanding the sound of voice and how to develop and listen to this voice in all situations.

What Is The Sound Of My Inner Voice?

How Do I Develop My Inner Voice?

How Do I Listen To My Inner Voice?

What Is The Sound Of My Inner Voice?

          Heuristics and biases are natural predictors of our inner voice.  Heuristics are the rules we internally develop, usually of the result of psychological and/or sociological stimuli, to help us assimilate and form decisions.  Also considered a short-cut, heuristics help us make specific decisions with apparent little conscious thought. 

Biases, on the other hand, represent the subsequent decision.  Often, when our inputs our incorrect, or our short-cuts are mistaken, we develop biases based on the inputs.  These biases are not necessarily developed consciously and entire fields, such as the study of cognitive biases, are being studied to better assist people in making more informed and objective decisioning.

Understanding some of your natural short-cuts is a start in hearing the sound of your inner voice.  A caution when tuning into this voice is ensuring the resulting information is objective and not wholly subjective.  Focusing on what your core values are is also a helpful exercise; for example, you might have a very sensitive voice to liars, and are able to ‘feel’ something amiss from certain people.  Others, however, may not have this frequency and ultimately don’t ‘hear’ what you hear.  The inclusion of value sets is not an arbitrary talking point.  Humans are conditioned to respond to what drives them, and what drives us is the essence of our value system(s).

The sound of your voice is unique to you and only you can learn to hear it.

How Do I Develop My Inner Voice

Meditation is an excellent process to help us consciously understand this system and hear our voice.  When we take the time to spend a few minutes every day to be still, be quiet, and be calm, we are teaching ourselves to hear the voice of our reason. Understand that meditation is not necessarily a religious or spiritual exercise.  While every known religion and spiritual path recognizes this process, it is not an exercise only the observant can benefit from.  All peoples, regardless of faith or lack thereof, can benefit from understanding their inner voice.

A second important approach is the art of listening.  Yes, listening is an art.  It is a developed practice that, when practiced, yields volumes of informative data.  When you are listening to someone, anything, listen to them or it.  Close your mind to the noise of your consciousness and hear their words, their perspectives, their interpretations.  Many of us listen with a clinical ear of cynicism and thus we miss what is being said because we are intent on mentally developing a retort to the speaker’s words.

While we believe rational cynicism is healthy, don’t allow this to obstruct your ability to hear.  When you listen openly and without additional noise, you are giving yourself an opportunity to subconsciously reflect on what you are hearing; thus, you are allowing your inner voice to hold a deeper, more meaningful and complete understanding.

A third task in developing your inner voice is your willingness to pause.  Pausing is an important process that so many of us ignore.  Teach yourself to pause at all of life’s intersections, conversations, deliberations, thoughts, actions and reactions.  When we learn to pause, our inner voice comes forth and relays the relevant data to our consciousness.  If there is any lesson to understand here it is the gift of pausing.  This is a very difficult construct to master, but one that will further the development of your inner voice with most efficiency.

How Do I Listen to My Inner Voice

          Listening to your inner voice is not hard, but is difficult.  It takes conscious practice to retrain your brain to listen objectively and phase out subjective noise.  When you take the time to invest in yourself, for the improvement and betterment of yourself, you are working towards a greater awareness of your inner voice.

          This is not an exercise of decisioning and/or executing, this is a simple application of understanding your voice.  With a greater understanding of what your voice sounds like you will better be able to implement this voice in your active decisioning and executing.  It is important to not confuse this when learning to listen to your inner voice.  When we are listening, that is all we are doing—listening.  With proper assignment and delegation of mental resources we can then use our voice for conscious decision making.

          This assignment and delegation comes from being quiet, and willing yourself to be heard.  With ongoing development and practice, you will employ the necessary skill sets to actively listen to your inner voice in all situations and circumstances.

          As you work towards this understanding, pay attention to the moments when your ‘gut tells’ you something.  It may help to record this in a diary of sorts to assist you in understanding when and where your voice is most active.  Once we understand when our voice becomes conscious we learn a greater proficiency at listening to this voice.

          A last remark: everything here is based on observables.  What you may need to consider or acquire in order for you to have an improved ‘sense’ of your voice is largely a subjective exercise.  The constructs relayed here are but initial stepping stones that are otherwise useful in all areas of life.  It is our desire and hope that you will develop your own systems of understanding so that you too may be able to better perform and deliver your best using your own voice.

Follow-up Action Item

           Take the time to develop a schedule that will allow you pull yourself away from the external world and listen to your ‘sixth sense.’  We all have this ability to hear our voice, but it is an otherwise trained, or retrained, ability.  Once you learn what your voice sounds like, pause in all situations in order to best gauge an appropriate response (if one is necessary).

Takeaway

          Listening to your inner voice is a precious gift that every person has, but very few use.  Learn to understand what your voice tells you and make decisions based on this voice.  In the end, be desirous of being a better person so that your voice may become one of safety and helpfulness to those around you.

Delivering Your Best