The voices in my head

Did you see the Disney and Pixar movie ‘Inside Out’ ? Or maybe the film called ‘Luca’? Then you will recognize the concept of different personalities taking the wheel inside your brain and controlling what you do and how you react to a situation. Riley from Inside Out has the emotions Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness battling over the joystick in her head. And Luca has to gather his confidence by saying ‘Silenzio Bruno!’ – telling Bruno to take a step back – the fear he has given a name.

The critic, the bully

Great concepts. And oh so familiar. That little voice in your head that tells you what you should do (or rather not do.) Most us will recognize the critic, who watches and comments: You are not good enough! What do you mean? You’ll never succeed!
I call him the ‘bully’. 

In my head I often notice the hypochondriac at the helm. ‘Help, I don’t feel well, I must have (insert a horrible disease here)’. But old acquaintances are also the faint-hearted, the dreamer, the procrastinator.

Characters in the shadows

In the movie Luca, the boy Luca comes up with a name for these characters. These cavemen. These bullies. The wanted and unwanted passengers that have hitched a ride on your inner bus. But I now try to identify who is at the controls, who is driving the bus. I wave away those who appear on stage most often, and then try to make room for the characters in the shadows. The parts of myself that don’t usually get that much room. The silent travelers.

Because they have something to tell me. Something new, something interesting. And by examining myself, I notice that I don’t always have to listen to the usual suspects, that little voice of my mother that warns me to be careful, my teacher that says I won’t get a passing grade, the friend who talks about me behind my back.

Action time: if you want to find out about the voices in your head, there’s an app called Antar which lets you play around with these. You can even create a WhatsApp conversation with annoying and helpful voices. Recommended!

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Photo by Jonny Caspari on Unsplash.