Why listening to your inner voice can transform your life
Kumar Shivam | Mar 12, 2025, 03:02 IST
We often follow rules and routines without questioning them, allowing our inner voice to guide us through unconscious patterns that might hinder our emotional growth. A simple reflection on everyday experiences, like cooking a potato, can spark insights about how these unquestioned habits affect our lives. Challenging these assumptions opens the door to personal growth and deeper self-awareness.
One evening, after a long workday, I found myself craving a comforting jacket potato. In my exhaustion, I forgot to prick the potatoes before baking them. To my surprise, they came out perfectly, crispy on the outside and soft inside. This small mistake made me realize how many habits we follow without question, simply because we’ve always done them. It made me reflect on how often we go through life on autopilot, not realizing we have the power to change.
Therapy: A space for new awareness
In therapy, you are encouraged to listen to your own thoughts in a way that might feel foreign or even shocking. Thomas Ogden, a psychoanalyst, writes about how patients, in the silence of therapy, hear the sound of their thoughts for the first time. This new awareness can lead to a profound shift in how we perceive ourselves and our lives. Therapy creates a space where we can reflect on how we speak to ourselves and whether that inner dialogue is supportive or harmful.
Breaking free from unquestioned rules
In life, we often follow rules or routines that no longer serve us. A childhood memory of my mother’s honey cake comes to mind: for years, she followed a tradition of storing it for weeks, which made it dry and tasteless. When I asked her why we did this, we changed the tradition, keeping the cake fresh and much more delicious. This simple question helped break a pattern that had limited our enjoyment and illustrates how small shifts in thinking can lead to greater fulfillment.
Relationships can help us hear ourselves differently
While therapy can offer valuable insights, you don’t need a professional to help you hear your inner voice in a new way. Close relationships with friends, family, or colleagues can provide the perspective needed to challenge old beliefs. These interactions allow us to hear things about ourselves that we might have missed, helping us transform our inner soundtrack from something stale into something fresh and engaging.
By questioning the rules we’ve followed without thought and being open to new perspectives, we can unlock emotional growth and greater self-awareness, leading to a more fulfilling life.
Therapy: A space for new awareness
In therapy, you are encouraged to listen to your own thoughts in a way that might feel foreign or even shocking. Thomas Ogden, a psychoanalyst, writes about how patients, in the silence of therapy, hear the sound of their thoughts for the first time. This new awareness can lead to a profound shift in how we perceive ourselves and our lives. Therapy creates a space where we can reflect on how we speak to ourselves and whether that inner dialogue is supportive or harmful.
Breaking free from unquestioned rules
In life, we often follow rules or routines that no longer serve us. A childhood memory of my mother’s honey cake comes to mind: for years, she followed a tradition of storing it for weeks, which made it dry and tasteless. When I asked her why we did this, we changed the tradition, keeping the cake fresh and much more delicious. This simple question helped break a pattern that had limited our enjoyment and illustrates how small shifts in thinking can lead to greater fulfillment.
Relationships can help us hear ourselves differently
While therapy can offer valuable insights, you don’t need a professional to help you hear your inner voice in a new way. Close relationships with friends, family, or colleagues can provide the perspective needed to challenge old beliefs. These interactions allow us to hear things about ourselves that we might have missed, helping us transform our inner soundtrack from something stale into something fresh and engaging.
By questioning the rules we’ve followed without thought and being open to new perspectives, we can unlock emotional growth and greater self-awareness, leading to a more fulfilling life.