by K. Scott Teeters - Reiki Master

For a moment, turn your attention from your external world and focus on your inner world. Be as silent as you can for the next 15 seconds.

Now what did you hear? You probably heard a voice inside your head that may have said, “What’s this supposed to be? Oh, another one of those woo-woo things.”

That dialog that you heard is what I call “The Radio Voice.” It’s okay, we all have a Radio Voice inside our heads. It’s been with us for as long as we can remember. Actually, so long a time that we think it is who we are.

I call the voice “The Radio Voice” because it often plays like a radio station. We have commentary, editorials, pop music, talk radio phone-in calls, music jingles, news stories, crime stories, fiction stories, romance stories, commercials, and a lot of ranting and raving. The noise inside our head is a like talk radio station playing all day long inside of our head. The good, the bad, the noble, and the horrible.

This awareness is largely unknown in the western world, however, in the eastern world, they have been aware of this for a long time. In the Far-East they call it “the drunken monkey” because the voice chitter-chatters non-stop like a monkey who’s gotten into the saki bottle!

The funny thing about The Radio Voice is that as soon as someone draws your attention to it, you can’t miss it. Right now, I’m sure you are acutely aware of what I have been describing. Prior to having someone draw your attention to The Radio Voice, it just ran on in the background. All of this noise wouldn’t be so bad, except for the fact that there is a dark aspect at work in there.

The Radio Voice has total access to everything in your subconscious mind. Not good. Consequently, your Radio Voice pulls up a lot of bad, negative feelings, and plays then out as negative self-talk. Like much of the fluff that floats around inside our head, we often say terrible things to ourselves. We say things to ourselves that we wouldn’t put up with for a moment from anyone else. It is the mechanism of low self-esteem that nearly all of us struggle with.

However, The Radio Voice has a noble cause, but its programming is a little off. Some of the negative inner dialog serves as a protective system. The Radio Voice compares current experiences with past unhappy experiences. The actual negative experience aren’t served up, but the bad feeling are. Then The Radio Voice adds commentary such as, “WATCH OUT! This is going to be bad! I’m going to get a raw deal again!” And on and on.

It all boils down to is this. The Radio Voice serves up fear. As Master Yoda said in one of the Star Wars films, “Fear leads to anger. And anger leads to hate, And hate leads to suffering.” Even if we are directing our fear-anger-hate on to someone else, on the way out, it gets on us as well.

But fortunately, everything has a balancing opposite force. Under all of The Radio Voice noise there is The Deep Inner Voice. It is what the Quakers call, “the still, small voice within.” You could call it your spirit, your God-self, your higher self, or the real you. There are many expressions for this quiet voice.

Most of us have only had an occasional awareness of The Deep Inner Voice because our mind and our environment is so filled with distracting noise. Every spiritual tradition has some aspect of silence built into the system. Be it prayer, meditation, or contemplation, the common denominator is silence.

I want to share with you two simple tools that can assist you in turning down the volume of your Radio Voice.

Step 1 is to bring awareness to the voice. Below is a chart of Radio Voice aspects and corresponding Deep Inner Voice qualities. When you are acutely aware of the distinctions between the two voices, then you proceed to Step 2.

Step 2. This is easier said than done. DON’T let The Radio Voice run the show! Why? Because it’s only a VOICE! If the voice is really yelling and you start to feel confused, do a quick check-in to access if the situation is really dangerous. Usually things aren’t, but be prudent and practical.

Once you have a clear awareness, you can say, “Wow, my Radio Voice is really carrying on. Better not over react.” Your awareness of the Radio Voice will get you started in turning down the volume.

Here are a few other simple things you can do to help lower your Radio Voice noise.

1. Limit the amount of TV you expose yourself to. The subliminal messages that are placed in programming and ads are created by very smart people who know what they are doing.

2. Limit the amount of pop music you listen to. Much of the lyrical content is very melodramatic and songs written in minor keys can induce a state of melancholy. Also, pop tunes are notorious for installing “ear worms” - songs that get stuck in your ear.

3. Get comfortable with soft instrumental music or no music at all. Remember the expression, “silence is golden.” The benefit of silence is that it allows you to better hear the Deep Inner Voice.

4. Establish your own form regular of prayer, meditation, or contemplation. These practices allow you to tap into your own Deep Inner Voice.

I love The Radio Voice metaphor because I feel that it accurately describes the inner chatter that all of us live with. Learning how to turn down the volume and eventually controlling our inner dialog can go a very long way towards moving us into a balanced, relaxed state of mind.

Shine on fellow time travelers...

Scott

Note: This essay is based in part on the work of Tim Piering's book, "Mastery." Unfortunately, this book is no longer in print, but used copies are available on Amazon.com