Moving Beyond the Voices in Your Head
This week I’m reading Diana, Herself: An Allegory of Awakening by Martha Beck. It’s a lovely read. The main character, Diana, has these voices in her head.
And they say things to her like, “You’re crazy. They are going to find you out. You’re not good enough. You are a loser. They are going to get to the truth about you. You are ugly.”
She calls these voices, The Furies.
According to Wikipedia, “The Furies, also called the Erinyes, were three goddesses of vengeance who lived in the Underworld. The Underworld is the Greek realm of the dead. As goddesses of vengeance, the Furies were sent out to bring justice to people who committed crimes.”
And ever since I started reading about Diana’s Furies, I haven’t been able to stop noticing my own. The vengeful voices in my head that scream at me for watching one TV show too much, for spending too long on social media, or for eating that last bit of cookie dough…whatever my daily sins might be.
And there’s something incredible happening.
As the Furies hit my light of awareness they start to lose their power.
They start to get quieter.
I start to notice just how ridiculous their claims are.
I think the power of the Furies comes from us not really hearing them. Allowing them to lay claim to space in our minds, in our hearts and in our bodies without being checked. Then they start to run the show. And we make decisions from a place of not being good enough, hiding from being seen or wondering if people will find out.
Those decisions based in fear will land us in regret, or will cause us to miss an opportunity and rob us of our joy.
That’s why it’s so important to bring those Furies to the light.
To see them.
To hear them.
Then to move beyond them.
We will never be able to eliminate them, because they are a side-effect of expansion. The Furies play hand in hand with our lizard brain. When the lizard brain wants us to stop – it sends out its little army of Furies to wreak vengeance on us and cause us to STOP. Because stopping is safe. Stopping is comfortable. Stopping takes away all risk.
But if we can see The Furies, and not respond to them, or at least respond differently, then they lose their power.
And we begin to stand in ours.
This I believe is the crux of the human experience – noticing the dance of the Furies in our heads – and not letting that dance take over our actions.
As entrepreneurs we practice this day in and out, and it is never easy. But it is what unites us, the secret handshake between all entrepreneurs, the knowing head nod, “Yes, I’ve fought The Furies today, and I have Won.” Or the knowing tears on the days when The Furies seem to have come out ahead.
So to you, my faithful entrepreneur, may you notice your Furies today and every day. May the light shine so brightly that they start to burn away. And may you notice the quiet power that comes from the space beyond where the Furies lie.
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