Quieting your Brain Bitch is an Inside Job

Quieting your Brain Bitch takes practice over time and it's an inside job. No one else can do it for you.

Once you recognize the voice in your head constantly beating you up and betraying you as separate from your highest self, you can begin to tap into your inner being for peace and wisdom.

In the Bhagavad Gita we are told that "Yoga is the Journey of the self, through the self, to the Self." Did you notice the first two references to the self are with a small "s" and the last is with a capital "S"? The first two are referring to our ego mind self, the last is referring to our spirit Self.

You can get help from your Self to quiet your self.

Within the practice of yoga there are methods by which one can learn to better identify with and hear from their Self. One of the primary ways is through meditation. Meditation is a practice of focusing and/or clearing your mind. When the mind is still, the Self is evident. Meditation is a "job" that can't be outsourced; if it is going to get done, you have to be the one to do it.

I hear people say all the time, "Meditation is hard." It can be. It's hard to make the time in our busy world to commit to just sitting down without any distractions. Once you make the time it can be very challenging to keep the mind from wandering off or talking even louder. When you do get the mind to quiet down and sense your inner Self, it is easy to dismiss it as being just another ego thought. Like anything you want to do well, it takes practice.

The Self, which is your truest nature and the real YOU, is not pushy or judgmental; it is wise and all-loving. As you begin your meditation practice, one way you can discern if your thoughts, feelings, and intuition are coming from your ego self or your spirit Self is to run it through the filter of "Is this loving and kind?" Anytime the answer is no you can immediately discard it as ego.

Another practice I use is journaling, I use this as a processing mechanism to facilitate self-study. Svadhyaya is one of the Niyamas in the eight limbs of yoga. To truly benefit from self-study you have to be willing to take an honest look at your thoughts, actions, reactions, judgments, habits, lifestyle, and so on. Self-study isn't a one-and-done, I spent years in quiet contemplation, tearful recognition, and painful purging to become who I am today. For each belief, value, prejudice, or learned behavior I deconstructed, a decision had to be made if it stayed or if it went. And if it went, what if anything would take its place? Like tearing down a building to find out what the foundation looks like, I wanted to know my Self and discard anything that wasn't true to my core. The work is ongoing but feels more like maintenance these days than a full-blown construction site.

The more time you spend getting to know your Self, the easier it becomes to discern which voice is the one you should allow to guide your life. The more authentic you feel, the more you love who you are. The more you love who you are, the more peace and joy you experience.

The inner work takes commitment and it isn't "easy," but I can say from experience that it is so worth it. To get started on your own inner work check out the Brain Bitch book today and join our Insiders email list for updates and exclusive content.