31 Days of Five Minute Free Writes-Voice

It’s Monday and day fourteen of the “31 Days of Five Minute Free Writes” writing challenge. Today’s word is VOICE.

There is a lot of talk about “finding your own voice”.  You can take a quiz, answer a few questions, or follow a three-step process to learn to communicate as your authentic self. I know exactly where my voice is located. My voice spends a great majority of its time in my head.

I’ve heard my voice say yes when the essence of who I am silently screamed NOOOOOOO. One look in the mirror or an attempt to take a selfie and my voice asks for a do-over. While trying to balance life, my voice hisses; “Why can’t you get it together?”

Like an over critical parent, my voice is trying to help. In a twisted and totally ineffective way, my voice tries to shame me into going after my dreams, losing weight, being a good mom, and the list goes on and on. The incessant talking and interrogations leave me wilted and sad.

Part of the Monday struggle is a voice reminding us things are not like we want them to be. The fun, carefree weekend is over and now it’s time for drudgery and traffic.

We accept the narrative of our voice as truth.  Even worse, we often don’t even realize a voice is speaking. Its poisonous ramblings become the normal background music of our lives.

The voice repeats our thoughts and it is very hard to ignore. Debating with the voice is exhausting. How can this Monday be different?

Well,  it is now Monday night. God has dealt with me on this all day.  I started this post this morning and heard the voice in my head scold me for not finishing for the majority of the day.

Ten hours later, I think I have the answer:

Perhaps we make Mondays and every day different by being kind to ourselves and the voice in our heads.

“Self-compassionate people recognize that being imperfect, failing, and experiencing life difficulties is inevitable, so they tend to be gentle with themselves when confronted with painful experiences rather than getting angry when life falls short of set ideals.” Dr. Kristen Neff

What if we thank our voices for letting us know all the things that could wrong and then place our focus on “whatever”.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:8