A Meditation: Get To Know Your Inner Critic

Who is that voice on the inside? What is it really saying? How does this voice get in your way? Let's find out! Wisdom from Untethered Soul will be our muse for this Meditation. Stop and take a moment to evaluate your relationship with your Inner Roommate. Who is running the show YOU or this voice? Find out and drop-in!

Thank you for practicing another Men Talking Mindfulness Podcast meditation here on Insight Timer.

Transcript

Welcome back.

This is Will Schneider with Mentalk in Mindfulness.

Let's drop in and do another meditation and discover our inner roommate.

I'm going to do this work and flow through this meditation through the guide of Michael Singer's The Untethered Soul,

A great book by Michael Singer.

The Untethered Soul,

Subtitled A Journey Beyond Yourself.

Before we begin,

Find your seat.

Once you find that seat,

Maybe take off your shoes,

Get comfortable.

We'll start with just a few breaths just to ground ourselves.

Close the eyes if you like as we breathe,

Or maybe start with your eyes open.

After that third or fourth breath,

Close the eyes.

Then just open up your ears and open up your mind and just listen to this wisdom by Michael Singer.

Let's just start.

Let's take an exhale out the mouth.

Big inhale through the nose.

Try to fill the bottom of the pelvis into the middle of the chest,

Top of the chest,

That big breath,

Big balloon in your body,

And exhale,

Let it go out.

Let the shoulders melt,

The face relax.

A couple more breaths in,

Out.

A few more.

The bigger the inhale,

The greater the opportunity as you transition into the exhale to find more of that peace.

Just a couple more.

Find yourself rooting deeper into the earth through that exhale by finding your sit bones and your feet or whatever is making contact with the earth.

Wherever you are,

You're on earth.

In case you didn't know that,

Really find more of that contact as you find those exhales.

Here we go.

Listen up.

To attain true inner freedom,

You must be able to objectively watch your problems instead of being lost in them.

No solution can possibly exist while you're lost in the energy of a problem.

Everyone knows you can't deal well with a situation if you're getting anxious,

Scared,

Or angry about it.

The first problem you have to deal with is your own reaction.

You will not be able to solve anything outside until you know how the situation affects you inside.

Problems are generally not what they appear to be.

When you get clear enough,

You will realize that the problem is that there is something inside of you that can have a problem with almost anything.

The first step is to deal with that part of you.

This involves a change from outer solution consciousness to inner solution consciousness.

You have to break the habit of thinking that the solution to your problems is to rearrange things outside.

The only permanent solution to your problems is to go inside and let go of the parts of of you that seem to have so many problems with reality.

Once you do that,

You'll be clear enough to deal with what's left.

He continues on a little bit later.

He says,

Just be aware that you are aware of what is going on in there.

I'll say that again.

Just be aware that you are aware of what is going on in there.

It's easy.

What you'll notice is that you're watching a human being,

A human being's personality with all its strengths and weaknesses.

It's as though there's somebody in there with you.

You might actually say you have an inner roommate.

Let's just take a few breaths here,

Allowing that wisdom to kind of digest it consciously.

As we continually try to draw focus to our breath,

That typically begins to agitate that inner roommate.

This is the place meditation creates the opportunity to go on the inside,

Detaching from the outside,

Allows us to create space from the outside,

Getting inside.

And then you'll notice that voice of that inner roommate,

How your focus right now to be on the breath,

Smoother your quality of breath,

The softer you'll feel on the inside,

The emotions will relax,

The mind will calm down.

Your nervous system is naturally calming down when you breathe softer and smoother.

Just let that be your focus for the next few moments.

By getting in touch with your breath and using it as an anchor and the opportunity to get here and now to become present to this moment.

And the only time it ever is,

Is right now.

And also this meditation practice helps us create space from that inner roommate.

So instead of constantly being in conflict or conversation with that roommate,

Create space,

Detach from that argument,

Let that conversation just drift by.

I'm going to continue to keep with that breath.

I'm just going to read a little more of what Michael Singer has to say.

He says,

If you would like to meet your roommate,

Just sit inside yourself for a while in complete solitude and silence.

You have the right.

It's your inner domain.

But instead of finding silence,

You're going to listen to incessant chatter.

Why am I doing this?

I have more important things to do.

This is a waste of time.

There's nobody in here but me.

What's this all about?

Right on cue.

There's your roommate.

You may have a clear intention to be quiet inside,

But your roommate won't cooperate.

And it's not just when you try to be quiet.

It has something to say about everything you look at.

I like it.

Don't like it.

This is good.

This is bad.

It just talks and talks.

You don't generally notice because you don't step back from it.

You're so close that you don't realize that you're actually hypnotized into listening to it.

This meditation practice is for not just this one,

But every single one that you do practice and hopefully practicing daily.

So I'm no longer hypnotized by this incessant chatter,

This constant commenting or dictation or whatever you want to call it.

Just be here with the breath.

Just notice that conversation instead of attaching to it.

Because when we do attach,

That's when our emotions start to flow,

Rise and fall and shift and change.

The inner roommate might not just be a voice,

But it could be an agitation of the body.

So you might be cracking your knuckles or scratching your face or trying to get physically comfortable.

It's just another expression of that roommate being uncomfortable with your silence and your stillness and your attempts to discover and be more of your consciousness in the here and now.

Come back to that gentle breath.

Become the objective observer,

The witness,

The watcher.

It's okay if you need to restart a million times with this meditation,

Coming back to the breath.

That's the practice.

That's what it takes.

Just let go.

Release the hand of that inner roommate.

Detach from the conversation.

Just be present here.

Keep it simple.

Let's take a few hard breaths to the nose just to kind of shake things off.

So inhale.

Exhale to the nose.

Again,

Inhale.

Let it go.

Let it go.

One more in-breath.

Exhale.

And let's just shift the focus of the meditation to just the sensations of the breath as it flows through your nostrils.

A technique called Anapanasati.

Just be there.

Flow of the breath.

Trying to create or change or contrive an experience.

That's the inner roommate trying to hypnotize you,

By the way.

Just be with what is.

Step back into the seat of consciousness.

Objectively being aware and watching.

Experiencing objectively the flow of breath in your nose and the sensations that it creates.

Just be with it.

I might just pop out and let that inner roommate go wild.

Just all those voices come back or that voice of that inner roommate.

Just notice and just be there.

Notice how incredibly seductive that inner roommate can be and how we want to attach to it.

Notice what does it want you to do?

Where does it want you to go?

How does it want you to feel?

Where is it trying to take you?

Is it pulling you into the past?

Is it trying to take you into the future?

It's the only place it knows is the past and the future.

Let's focus back up.

Your nose.

Exhale.

Get more grounded.

Feel your body in this space as you slowly release and detach from that inner roommate.

Notice how we have the ability to become present with the crazy inner roommate.

It takes several times for you to listen so you can begin to change the relationship with you and your inner roommate.

You're no longer attached.

You're free.

You can be free inside and you can be less and more free and less manipulated on the outside.

Now exhale to begin.

Beautiful inhale.

Cooling sigh out.

Take a moment.

Maybe hands over your chest or hands in a prayer and just take some time to really thank yourself for practicing and developing more consciousness understanding yourself in a more meaningful way on the inside.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

This is Will with Mentalki Mindfulness.

If this is helpful to you,

Please share it with someone out there that is struggling.

Thanks for showing up everybody.

Have a fantastic day.