Using NLP on Yourself 06 Quieting A Negative Internal Voice

Quieting a negative internal voice:

“Sub-‐vocalization”, “internal dialogue”, “inner voice”, “internal speech” or

whatever else you want to call it, all of us at some point, have likely been at the
effect of a negative internal voice that has affected our state and our

performance.

The dialogue you have with yourself on a day-‐by-‐day basis influences and shapes
how you experience the world. With the right internal voice, we can find that

motivating force that drives us on when times are tough, with a wimpy voice we
can find our will lackluster.

Your inner voice is the companion who is always with you and left unmonitored

can jailor or, your liberator. How you use it is up to you.

For many people getting themselves to exercise regularly is something they are

good at not doing. Their inner voice as Richard Bandler would say is “driving the
bus”. A mixture of “how I am feeling right now” and a strong internal voice rules
what behaviour they perform.

The inner dialogue goes something like this:

Voice 1: “I should go exercise…” said in a fatalistic, half-‐hearted voice tone.

Voice 2: “Yea but it’s cold outside, it’s getting dark and you have that other thing
you could be doing”. This is typically said in a certain, definite voice tone.

Voice 1: “Mmm, well I could get up early and go exercise tomorrow and it is

getting late, plus I really wanted to watch that special double edition of CSI at 9.
I’ll go in the morning”. (Said in a relinquishing voice tone).

And the brain moves on to doing the next thing and forgets about going out to

exercise until “it’s too late” tomorrow.

As Steven Covey once said, inner victory precedes outer victory. NLP provides

you with many tools and distinctions to quieten and take charge of your inner
voice.

Yet if you expect that NLP is somehow a magic bullet and you just need to run

one technique once and everything thereafter is “happy ever after” then you are
setting yourself up for failure. Human beings are not computer machines and
while we each demonstrate an incredible ability to learn and change, we typically

will need several iterations of a technique to get it to stick.

A lot of what you listen to on the inside is just noise, kind of like traffic control

updates on the radio. You can ignore it, listen to it (where useful), turn it down
or switch the channel. The choice resides with you.

So your assignment is to choose from any of the five techniques demonstrated in
the earlier video and follow along with the process. Practice each component of
it. Be playful and curious as to how big a shift you can make.

Practice it every day this week. Start to cultivate greater control and influence
over your own internal dialogue. If you want, feel free to combine 2-‐3 different
techniques to develop greater control until you can put your tongue on the top of

your roof palate and instantly have silence and a sense of quietness descend unto
your mind.

The reward for your efforts will make it very much worth it.

Celebrate every win:

As your become better and better at controlling your internal dialogue, make
sure you celebrate each win.

If you were unable to quieten your mind before you used these techniques and
can now do so for several seconds, feel great and look to expand that more and

more.

When you are able to go for much longer periods, even better again. Celebrate
each win along the way as you increase your capacity to be able to hold that

state.

Remember however that the goal is not to be able to quieten your inner voice for
X period of time, rather it is to re-‐introduce choice into the key component of

your ongoing everyday experience.

Go do this assignment now.