It's almost embarrassing when someone calls me up and they, "Doc, I'm hearing negative
voices in my head."
Don't worry there's some hope for that.
I'm Dr. Paul Jenkins I'm a Clinical Psychologist, with about 30 years of clinical experience.
I've got some ideas about this.
Now, there's some good news and some bad news.
Stay tuned for both.
Let's start with the good news, are you down for that?
You not as crazy as you feel.
When I ask my clients, "Do you hear the voices in your head?"
They're like, "There's a Psychologist asking me about the voices in my head." and they
freak out a little bit.
You not as crazy as you feel, it doesn't mean that you are crazy.
In fact, we all hear them.
Even those of you who are hearing that little voice right now that says, "What voices?
I don't have any voices."
That's the voice I'm talking about.
The one the comments about this video.
The one that says "Oh yeah, I really agree with that" or "No, that doesn't sound right
to me."
Those are the voices that were talking about.
There are at least 3 voices in your mind at any given time.
Do you remember the old cartoons, where there was a little shoulder angel and a little shoulder
devil, and they are both trying to get your attention.
Remember those?
It's kind of like that.
What if those voices in our mind represent the angel and the devil, where the forces
of good and the forces of evil.
However, you wanna look at that, and then the third voice is you.
You're the one in the middle, you're the one who's listening to, or judging or choosing,
or paying attention to.
You're the agent in the machine, okay.
3 voices in your mind and the good news is, you're not alone we all hear them.
Let's come back to the voices in just a minute.
I wanna demonstrate something that is potentially really powerful.
So, track for a moment what's going on in your own mind.
I want you to do what's called "Metacognition", which is thinking about thinking.
Think about your thinking for a minute and watch what happens.
Just observe what happens in your own mind, between now and now.
What happen?
Most people answer, "Nothing, I'm was just waiting to see what's gonna happen next."
Yeah, do you want to try it again?
What happens between now and now?
Did you notice?
I use this exercise to help my client see that the natural state of mind?
Is peace, quiet, it's quiet in there.
I shared this with one of my clients last and she said, "That's beautiful."
It is, and how does it feel to consider that the natural state of your mind is peace.
It's quiet in there, this is good news.
The voices, that make all the noise in there must not be connected to the natural state
of your mind.
Just consider that as we move forward.
I bit you can think of somebody else who might enjoy finding that out, right now.
Share this video with them.
Can I invite you out of that peaceful place for we just went.
Now, let's go back to those voices, remember there's 3.
How can you tell which voice is which?
Sometimes, it's obvious, right?
"Oh, that's the devil" or "Oh, that's probably the angel." and sometimes, it's not so obvious.
So, I want to give you a discernment tool.
This is something that you can apply to know which voice it is that you're listening to.
I got this from Wendy Watson Nelson, who wrote a book called "Change Your Questions, Change
Your Life" and in this book she handed us this discernment tool.
The discernment tool is a question.
where you ask simply, "Whose agenda does this support?", interesting.
Because the agenda will reveal the source of that voice.
Now, I know it sounds like we're getting kinda into a spiritual realm here and perhaps we
are.
But I believe, that there are forces outside of us that influence our own thinking.
In fact, this could be as simple as driving down the freeway and suddenly you are thinking
about home mortgages.
Why?
Because you just saw the billboard.
You didn't initiate that thought it was placed into your head by the force outside of you.
And in a similar way, we are influenced by this forces and maybe there's a friendly force,
and not so friendly source out there, maybe there's an ally and an enemy.
Just consider that for a minute and if that is true, we need to know what's there agendas
are so that we can properly discern where the voice is coming from.
In order to apply that discernment tool, we're going to need to get pretty clear about, "What
the agendas are?"
So, let's picture for a minute that we've got that the little shoulder devil and the
little shoulder angel.
What would be their agenda or purpose, or objective as it relates to you?
Let's take the devil, for example, the enemy.
What does the enemy want for you?
What's the agenda?
Would it be safe to say that it's misery in some form, right?
The enemy doesn't want you to succeed or prosper or win.
They're trying to defeat you and create some form of misery in your life.
Are we clear on that agenda, okay?
Let's go over to the advocate, the angel, the good force.
What do they want for you?
Happiness, joy, prosperity, success all those good things.
Remember, there are 3 voices, the third one is you.
Remember, you right here in the middle.
You're the one whos listening to these 2, that they're trying to get your attention.
What's your agenda?
What do you want for you?
Pretty clear, isn't it?
You want to be happy, everyone wants this.
In my book, I call it "The feeling" capital T, capital F. The feeling that life is good,
that things are good.
That my life is good.
You want happiness, joy so check it out 3 voices, 2 agendas.
When we ask the discernment question and, "Whose agenda does this support?".
That's going to help us to know which one to listen to.
We'll know the source when we ask the discernment question.
Knowing one's agenda is really helpful.
It's also helpful to know the strategic plan of both sides.
So, how do these entities operate?
Let's go to the angel first, well the angel ever lie to you?
No, it's against the angel code, against the rules they can't do it.
What about the devil, the enemy?
Will the devil lie to you?
Oh yeah.
In fact, one of the main strategies of the evil one is to decieve.
What is deception?
Deception is making something appear to be something that it's not, and that's not fair.
But that's what deception is all bout.
Knowing the agendas and the strategies of both sides, and our own.
We can discern where it's coming from and make a choice on what were going to do with
it.
So, try this one on for example, have you heard this voice?
That one that says 'I'm not good enough."
Do you hear that one? a lot of people have.
Now, let's learn it through the discernment tool.
But before we do that, first whose voice does it sounds like?
Well, it's first person, "I'm not good enough."
Sounds like me, right?
Sounds like my voice, discernment tool.
Whose agenda does this support?
Oh, different answer, certainly not the angel's agenda you know what it's not even mine.
Maybe it's not me, misery?
If I believe that "I'm not good enough."
I'm gonna have misery and that's the enemy's agenda, maybe it's not me.
Did you ever see "Pirates of The Caribbean"?
The first one, the good one.
Where Captains Jack Sparrow is having a sword fight with Will Turner.
There in the blacksmith shop, it's very well choreographed, they're just going at it.
And at some point during the sword fight, Captain Jack pulls a pistol on Will our hero.
Pulls a pistol, put's it right at him.
Wil looks at me *encrojuisly, "You cheated!" he says, and Captain Jack just response in
his wobbly pirate way.
"Pirate, like of course I cheated I'm a Pirate.
Of course, I brought a gun to a knife fight."
Remember, I said there's good news and there's bad news.
The good news is your not as crazy as you feel, everybody hears these voices.
The bad news, there are pirates afoot, and these pirates over here on your shoulder,
like to steal your voice.
They pirate your voice because they know you're gonna believe that one.
Think about it, your just prideful enough and so am I.
We believe our own voice above all others.
When it sounds like us we believe it.
That's the error because there's pirate afoot, watch out for the pirates.
What if you knew it was the enemy, would you listen?
You know Eckhart Tolle is one of my heroes.
I love his philosophy, listen to home speaking, to read his books.
He went through a period of suicidal depression.
Where he had a voice on his head that said, "I hate myself."
and then he heard another voice.
Now, you're already using the discernment tool, aren't you?
Whose agenda does that support?
He heard another voice that saved his life and the second voice said, "Wait a minute,
who is this I that hates me so much? and who is this me that I hate?.
Blues mind saves his life because he realized there are pirates afoot.
Watch out for the pirates and use the discernment tool.
Does it help a little to know this things?
I'm glad that you're here I would love to join us all at Live on Purpose Central where
you're going to find additional even more powerful resources to help you with this.
In every aspect of your personal development.
Come on over to Go.liveonpurposecentral.com