If you are like most people, you go through your life thinking the chatter going on in your brain is “you” talking to yourself in the present. In reality, that chatter taking place is not you talking to yourself now; it is usually chatter from the past that if listened to, can keep you trapped there!
The chatter is taking place by a “Little Voice” that was created when someone told you something, you had an experience, or maybe you saw something happen to someone else and it left a strong enough impression to get replayed in your mind whenever a current situation triggers this memory from the past.
For example, if you loaned someone that you trusted money and were never paid back, the next time someone you trust asks for a loan, this “Little Voice” is likely to come up and say,
“Whoa! You can’t trust this person to pay you back!”
You may even trust this person less once they asked to borrow money (yet, this is the same person they were before they ever asked for the loan!). The “Little Voice” is from the past applying a situation with a completely different person to the person in the present as if he or she were the same person from before. The Little Voice from the past will try to make this decision for you, without regard that you are not reliving the experience from the past. You are in the present, dealing with a new person and a whole new set of circumstances.
Being able to hear a “Little Voice” as chatter about the past and identify it for what it is, a warning from a past time and past situation will help you make better decisions regarding the moment you are in. If there is good information from your “Little Voice”, great, use it! But, don’t let it try to correct a situation that happened in your past through an entirely new situation in the present. We can never go backwards and undo what has already happened, we can only be here, now, moving forward. To do this, you must make your decision using the current data you have and not let your “Little Voice” transfer past feelings and experiences into the experience you are having right now.
