News

3 Ways Your Inner Commentator Is Preventing You From Being Happy

Here is how it happens for me. My commute into Boulder, CO with the

mountains as a backdrop starts as a peaceful experience. Then someone

decides to pass me, swerving into the oncoming traffic lane, only to get to

the stoplight at the same time.

What a freak, I think.

Why did they feel the

need to do that to me?

Then, I end up behind the slowest person in the

world. This person decides to brake every chance they get and I rant to

myself, why are they messing with me? What did I do?

Before my lunch date, I check my email and see I have several messages

from my manager. Your expense report was returned because you did not

enter your dates correctly, the first states. You are behind quota this month.

Let’s see what we can do to bring you up to our standards, the second

reads. My response is, why the hell is he picking on me! I work my ass off

and get no positive feedback. He just wants me to quit! At lunch, my friend

continues to tell me about her girls trip she is planning, the concert she went

to with with a mutual friend, and the party she had for her daughter last

month. I went into wounded mode wondering why she is leaving me out of

her things. We must not be that close, I think. I must have done something

to piss her off.

At home I am greeted by a crying daughter. She tells me her friendship with

her best friend is over. Why? I ask. She relays her friend isn’t replying to her

texts. I suggest her friend may be busy or had her phone taken away and

remind her not to take things personally.

A lightbulb switches on in my brain. Why was I making everything about me?

The guy didn’t swerve around me to piss me off, he passed a car. The slow

driver wasn’t holding me up intentionally. If I create my world with my

thoughts and perceptions I am creating a world based on drama and

negativity.

This is a common trait. You can say we are wired to experience events from

a emotional perspective. From traffic drama to misinterpreting a text we

emotionally react based on patterns created in the subconscious. Scientific

studies have shown that there is an area of the brain that responds to

arousal, fear, anger, anxiety, hate and jealousy. This area is the amygdala.

The lovely part of the brain that highjacks our emotional perception. Part of

the amygdala’s job is to monitor stress responses such as the fight or flight

response. The other job is to monitor incoming information and look for a

pattern matches.

In addition to this physical phenomenon is a nonphysical part of us that

drives behavior based on our subconscious and egoic mind. Welcome the

Inner Commentator. Think of it like a sports commentator. It is the voice

inside your head that is giving you a play by play commentary of your life

based on subconscious patterns and beliefs.

There are 3 ways the Inner Commentator keeps you from being happy.

1. The Inner Commentator will create lies. The Inner Commentator is

sneaky, devious and loves to lie to you.
Since it is based on emotional perception it doesn’t reveal reality. For

example, when someone gives you a strange look your Inner Commentator

may think, they don’t like me. In reality that person may be having a bad

day. If you feel this happening to you asked yourself, Is this true? If not, it is

your Inner Commentator telling you the story.

2.  The Inner Commentator does not want peace it loves drama.
It does this because it feeds our addictive behaviors. Our Inner

Commentator, which is part of our ego, believes our identity lies in our

drama. It creates a soap opera feeding off the ups and downs of the

characters. It may be bored without the highs and lows. In reality your True

Self wants peace. If you hear your Inner Commentator creating a soap

opera out of your life ask yourself, do I want peace or drama?

3. The Inner Commentator loves to obsess!
Obsessing over anything is exhausting. You become a prisoner of your

thoughts. The Inner Commentator doesn’t want you to be free. The stories

start to have a life of their own and you start to believe the lies based on

perception of the Inner Commentator. To break free of the Inner

Commentator’s obsession be first be aware that is is your Inner

Commentator speaking, not you. Then go back to steps one and two and

ask yourself, Is this story true? and do I want peace or drama?

To have peace and happiness in your life it is important to identify the stories

your Inner Commentator is telling you. Know that you have the choice to

listen to it or not and make the positive changes you wish to make to create

your world.