Susan called it the “Chatterbox.” That voice inside each of us that is our voice of doom and gloom. That voice that finds us when we’re already down and pushes us farther away from the parts of ourselves that are joyful and confident.
Affirmations were Susan’s favorite way of rewiring our thinking away from that Lower Self voice. Another way to separate it from ourselves is to give it a name. That way, when it starts grumbling and griping, we can talk back to it directly, as if it were another entity separate from ourselves.
For Marianne, she named her chatterbox “Maxwell.” So when that voice started in with the fearfulness, the anxiety, she could just say, “Stop it Maxwell.” She didn’t know any other Maxwells, which made it easier for her to distinguish that Lower Self voice.
Sophie called her chatterbox, “Mom,” because the voice sounded way too much like the way her mom nagged at her when she was growing up. As you might guess, Sophie did not have a good relationship with her mother, and it took her a long time as an adult to set up boundaries to distance herself from her mom. Naming her chatterbox “Mom” made it easier to banish that Lower Self voice.
For Joshua, he found that the chatterbox was worse after a long day of work. He worked in retail and often had a closing shift. When he got home after ten at night, the voice would run circles through his brain. He finally named his chatterbox ‘The Tired.” He would tell himself that it was The Tired talking, when his chatterbox acted up. The negative feelings weren’t really how he thought, but The Tired always tried to squeeze into his thinking bringing anxiety and depression.
So find a name for that inner, Lower Self voice that prefers you to be fearful and sad. And then tell it off whenever it tries to home in on your thinking.