How To Recognize Your One True Voice
You want to trust your intuition, follow your own authority and live by your own inner guidance.
But when you venture inside yourself for clarity, you’re confronted by more than one voice.
You might even find a whole chorus clamoring to offer their two cents, now that you asked.
Accessing the wisdom within can be confounding and often sends us quickly back to the surface seeking answers.
Yet, one of the best ways to enable your personal success and fulfillment and also truly make a difference in this world is to learn to connect to the innate intelligence of your one true voice.
The Inner Crew
“Many of us are impersonations of what we know we ought to be.” ― Henry S. Haskins
We all host an inner ensemble, our own motley mix of internalized voices.
Riffs on the anthems of our parents, cultural credos and a cumulation of emotional effects are just some of what make up this inner sound track.
Though the layers of voiceover can be difficult to differentiate, it’s worth getting to know the cast you keep.
Knowledge is power.
Observe the different personalities. Notice their patterns.
Your inner voices are having an impact on your direction daily and without your conscious awareness every day is a field day.
The characters that make the final cut and become regular commentators in your head, guaranteed, are super convincing to you — even though they often oppose one another.
They’re good at making you believe that they have your best interest at heart.
Their chatter may sound highly intelligent and even reasonable.
But, often, they are not speaking truth.
Often, they are nothing more than mental conditioning and emotional residue from past experiences, waiting for intervention or resolution.
Despite their bravado, they secretly long for the boss to return and restore order behind the scenes.
Your Original Voice
“A wisdom as constant as the North Star shines within all of us. It is always present, waiting to be tapped, waiting to guide us, to advise us…this innate sense of what we know to be true — a place we go to recover our sanity and to regain our balance.” ― Nancy Cobb
Despite the multitude we accommodate, each of us comes endowed with our own reliable inner compass. I call it the one true voice (OTV).
Your OTV is your inner authority. It is your capacity for deep intuition and knowing. And please note, it is distinct from your emotions.
It is pure consciousness, simple uncluttered awareness.
It holds a direct line to your original purpose, the essence of what you came here to learn and give.
Your OTV is your essential guide to your most authentic life, your fulfillment and your most valuable contribution. If ever you came with a user’s manual on how-to-be-you and do it right, this is it.
Heart Intelligence
“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
Most of us learned in school that the brain is the master organ in the body and that the heart’s only function is that of pumping blood.
Yet, across most cultures throughout time, the heart has been attributed with far more. It is perceived as a source of wisdom, insight and spiritual connection. We listen to it and ask it for guidance. We perceive it as a sense organ.
In the new field of neurocardiology, scientists have discovered that the heart has its own intrinsic nervous system that often acts independently of the brain in our heads.
According to Rollin McCraty, executive vice president and director of research at HeartMath® Institute, the heart produces by far the largest electromagnetic field in the body. It initiates 90% of the communication with the brain, rather than the reverse.
Credible evidence from rigorous scientific experiments indicate that the heart is truly an intelligent system and that it plays a key role in intuition. In short, it appears that the age-old associations that we have with the heart may actually be more than just metaphorical.
There is still much to be understood, but I suspect that the intelligence of the heart and the OTV within us are strongly linked, if not one in the same.
Accessing Your One True Voice
“The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are”
— Joseph Campbell
In order to connect with your OTV, it’s important to quiet inner chatter and emotional reactivity, at least somewhat.
Heartmath has created simple, scientifically-effective techniques that help us do just this. Each technique begins by focusing on the breath and imagining the breath moving in and out through the heart.
This first step by itself has been shown to smooth and order our heart rhythms. The smoother our heart rhythms, the more coherent the communication is between the heart, brain and autonomic nervous system.
HeartMath research has also shown that a positive emotion significantly increases our level of coherence. The greater our coherence, the higher our cognitive functioning and the more access we have to our intuitive capabilities.
So, I suggest doing this simple 2 steps process as a way to assist you in more clearly accessing your deeper intelligence. It only takes a few minutes and can be done anytime and anywhere.
Don’t be fooled by the simplicity. It genuinely works. HeartMath Institute has lots of empirical data to support its effectiveness.
Quick Coherence® Technique:
Step 1: Focus your attention in the area of your heart. Imagine that you can breathe in and out through the heart or chest area. Breathe a little slower and deeper than usual.
Step 2: Activate a positive feeling. Make a sincere attempt to experience a regenerative feeling such as compassion or care for someone or something in your life.
5 Distinguishing Qualities Of Your One True Voice
We’re each unique. We come with a different purpose and different objectives, goals and gifts. But, I believe every OTV has the following essential tones in common. Look for these qualities when tuning into your inner guidance:
#1 Your OTV Tells It Like It Is
“Truth never damages a cause that is just.”
― Mahatma Gandhi
Your OTV is not role playing like the other inner voices. It is authentic, plainspoken and doesn’t mince words. It’s clear and decisive. It has no need to sugarcoat, nor paint an overly fearsome picture to get your attention.
While it is ever-present, it is not it’s job to micromanage the crew of inner voices. It’s neutral in this regard. If there is lots of inner noise, it’s perfectly fine waiting decades or even a lifetime for the mindless partying to cease.
It’s continues to private message you though. Once you quiet the crew, it is right there, generous with its wisdom and it tells you like it is.
#2 Your OTV Sees Every Challenge As Opportunity
“The only journey is the one within.” ― Rainer Maria Rilke
The true voice within you knows that every step, every experience without exception, is useful and purposeful for you. It knows that you can learn and grow from everything.
Grounded in this reality, your OTV ’s outlook is generally positive. It is tolerant, patient, undogmatic and has the capacity to be enduring and constant.
#3 Your OTV Is Chillll….
“Not knowing when the dawn will come I open every door.” ― Emily Dickinson
We often think that our gut, our most powerfully charged emotions, are the wisdom of our hearts. There was a time when I thought this was so. But if you confuse your emotions with your inner wisdom, you’ll end up riding the tail of the tiger.
I was surprised to learn that the intelligence of my heart, my OTV, is actually very unemotional.
Unresolved traumas from our past can create an emotional baseline within us that colors our perception. This is common. You can still learn to access your OTV, even when you are in a reactive state. It is harder but not at all impossible.
Again, listen for the confident, relaxed, secure, steady, simple, even tone of your OTV.
It is the unshakeable voice within you.
#4 Your OTV Has No Problem Taking An Unusual Course Of Action
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. “
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
Your OTV is not little you. It’s big you.
It’s the ineffable part of us humans that we cannot explain. I could throw down words like soul and spirit, but I will resist because those terms have so many meanings attached to them and mean different things to each of us.
Because your OTV is aligned with your gifts and greater purpose, it is unafraid. It is expansive. It’s the part of you that knows nothing of fear. It is discerning, wise, clear-eyed and rational but undeterred.
Emotional residue and negative programming deter the natural unfoldment of your purpose and expression of your gifts. They interfere with your organic movement toward what you care about most and were meant to caretake.
The OTV within you is like water running through a stream bed. It has no resistance. It moves naturally and freely over the landscape. Sometimes the ride is gentle and smooth, and sometimes turbulent.
#5 Your OTV Has One Goal
“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why. “— attributed to Mark Twain
Your OTV is your inner navigation system. It’s loyal to your purpose. It is designed to keep you on the path until your mission is accomplished.
It’s entire purpose is to guide you toward what you came to learn and serve. Everything it does is to signal you in the direction that befits you most, that utilizes your greatest gifts, that fulfills the promise of your soul.
(Ha! There, I did it. Almost made it through the article without using that word.)
Conclusion
The more familiar you become with your OTV, the more you will begin to develop a deeper identity with it.
If you know the tone of your OTV, you’re less convinced by the conditioned voices. Which means, your negative programming loses it’s spell over you.
There is no need to eradicate all inner voices other than your one true voice. I personally don’t yet know if that is even possible.
But, I do believe reestablishing connection with your OTV is crucial to your personal success and fulfillment, and your ability to make your most awesome, joyful offering.
Your life will be altogether different when your OTV has the mic!
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