Informative

Listening to the Inner Voice

We often hear ourselves speaking with us inside our heads. Many times, this little voice in between our ears encourages us. Our internal GPS alerts us for the impending danger or hints us at the correct path we must choose in a few situations.

While inner voice is a common occurrence for spiritual practitioners, only a few can experience it in the real sense. What if all we can hear is pin-drop silence even after trying hard? Why could some of us listen to that inside voice better than others? How can we hear our inner voice? Let’s take a look.       

What is the inner voice?

 It has many names, such as internal chatter, self-dialogue, self-guidance, a spiritual guide, internal compass, inner wisdom, internal monologue, etc. Scientifically speaking, it’s the conversation we do with ourselves due to complex brain mechanisms that make us hear ourselves inside our heads.

All of our lives are shaped by this inner voice. Many times, we listen to it, and for the rest of the time, we push it apart, neglecting it altogether. Often, our gut feeling is telling something about someone, and we ignore it, later to find out that our gut was right all along. That feeling is called the inner voice.  

Why does inner voice matter?

 Life is 10% of what happens to us and 90% of how we react to it. Inner voice helps us respond better, with maturity, conscience, and calmness to the different life stimuli. Lord Buddha used to say that Our life is the creation of our own mind, which means it’s up to us how we perceive the world. We see either only difficulties in life or only opportunities. Gut feeling creates our mindset with positivity if we learn to listen carefully.   

It helps us navigate through the dense waters called life. It let us know the danger ahead. It helps us make the right choice, scolds us when we are doing something wrong. The natural inner voice is intelligent and wholly tuned with our beliefs.

 How can you tune in to your inner voice?

Listening to the inner voice might be the new thing for many of us. It might be challenging to channelize our attention inwards. Here are a few tips which will get you started.

Making time.
We make time in our life for what’s important. The first step is to slow down and give time for ourselves. The best way to tap into our inner voice is to create more space between our thoughts so that our intuition can have more room. What do we do in our spare time matters a lot? If we are addicted to the screens, we cannot have alone time with ourselves, which is crucial for deep inner listening.

Practice listening.
All of us here, but very few of us listen actively. When we hear without being judgemental and compulsion to respond, it’s called active listening. When we acquire a capacity to actively listen to others, we develop the capacity to hear our most profound voices and decode the wisdom and guidance they offer.

Morning Journaling.
When we wake up after a calm sleep, our mind is a bank, and we are in tune with our original thoughts. As the day advances, our responsibilities, expectations, and opinions pollute our innermost thoughts. When we note down our intentions in the morning, we note down our inner voices, starting our day with positivity, being aligned with ourselves, and decluttering thoughts.

Preferences.
As we grow up, we restructure our lives as per the world and the beliefs and expectations of others. In the process, we learn to ignore our innermost desires, inner voices, and internal guidance system to play safe and fit in the crowd. But when we decide to give preference to our inner thoughts instead of surrendering to others’ opinions, requirements, demands, and authority, we develop boundaries, with the power of saying no to others. By preferring to listen to yourself, you get more attuned with your inner self.

Healthy Balance.
To hear ourselves, we must create a balance between body and mind. We physically feel balanced with a healthy diet, supplements, and exercise. This routine causes the release of happy hormones in our bodies, creating a mental balance. When we achieve that, we can differentiate between our inner voice and just reactionary emotions we have. 

Mantra Meditation for cultivating inner voice.
Chakras play an essential role in the energy flowing through our bodies. Throat Chakra, also known as Vishuddha Chakra, is responsible for expressing self, inner truth, and communication with self and with others. If you feel that you cannot hear your inner voice or feel disconnected from yourself, give this meditation a try. This is how you get started with meditation, cultivating our inner voice.

-Sit straight in a quiet corner of your house, preferably without disturbing noises and distractions. 
-Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths. When you exhale, allow your muscles to relax.
-Form third perspective, notice where your attention is. If you are getting entangled in your thoughts, bring back your focus on your breath.
-Now, chant ‘Kleem Kalikaye Namah’ loudly for the first five minutes, and for the next ten minutes, chant the Mantra in your mind.
-This potent Mantra belongs to the Divine Mother Kali, which will help you bring balance in your Throat Chakra.
-After chanting the Mantra for 10 minutes in mind, open your eyes, and get along with your day.

Chanting the Beej (seed) Mantra, incorporating the color blue in our life, paired with meditation and positive affirmations, improves the balance in Throat Chakra. 

As discussed above, active listening helps cultivate our inner voice, and meditation is active listening to those higher powers that clear our path of understanding our inner self. Meditation is like catching a fast track train to hearing that unadulterated pure inner voice.

Ask yourself, who am I? What is my purpose in this world? Seek inward and try to find that inner voice. It might not necessarily come up to you in the first week or month of meditation. Still, eventually with uninterrupted practice, you will be able to open a communication channel with your inner self.

We hope this blog helped you gain insight into the process of listening to the inner voice.  

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