Do you have a soft voice? What I mean is, do you have a secondary voice – not the loud, chattery one that natters away in your head most of the day – but another quieter, gentler voice that pipes up just when you need it to? You hear it when you listen for it.
I do. It gets a bit drowned out most of the time. I’m a very abrupt person – I barge around, mostly, and wonder why there’s so much chaos in my life. And am often too busy to hear my quiet voice. And yet I crave a quieter, stiller way.
The louder, more bombastic voice gets priority because it seems more urgent, more “right”. It’s the voice that’s been rewarded over the years. I’ve fed it with attention. Like laughing at show-offs.
It’s taken years to realise the loud voice really has no idea what it’s on about. It wings it. The quieter voice has the answers. She just doesn’t need to shout.
Ever noticed how when you are super certain, you’re happy to sit back in an argument or in banter and quietly put your point across at the end? Yelling just makes things chaotic and noisy and distracting. There’s no point competing with the loud voices. It’s like that. My quiet voice sits back and waits for me to be ready to hear it, ready for me to lean in and listen better.
The DailyOM posted this a little while back about learning to hear your quiet voice:
It is generally true that the more insistent voices in our heads delivering messages that make us feel panicky or afraid are of questionable authority. They may be voices we internalized from childhood or from the culture, and as such they possess only half-truths. Their urgency stems from their disconnectedness from the center of our being, and their urgency is what catches our attention. The other voice that whispers reassurances that everything is fundamentally okay …
Once we hear it, we know it speaks the truth. Generally, once we have heard what it has to say, a powerful sense of calm settles over our entire being.
I’ve found when I do listen to my quiet voice, I am more certain. I become more certain. I become that wise chick in the room with a knowing aura.
I’ve learned to listen to my quiet voice by sitting still each day – 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the evening, in meditation. For the first five minutes or so, the loud chatter rambles on. Then, with gentleness is rambles off, and my quiet voice steps forward. Often it doesn’t have to say much. Often it just says things are cool.
I also step back from bombastic situations and smile at what’s going on…my quiet voice is heard when I do this. My quiet voice gets more and more solid with practice. And so do I. I kinda like being the wise, quiet chick with the knowing smile. It feels way more powerful and infectious.
Have I lost anyone with this? Do you know what I mean? Do you have ways of hearing your quiet voice?
