The Chatter Inside Our Heads

Do you talk to yourself? Some of us do it out loud (which can be so embarrassing sometimes), but almost all of us do it internally. We can be our own best critics. We can fight with ourselves, lie to ourselves, and work our best to convince ourselves of all sorts of crazy things. They do this in the Bible as well. Listen in on this conversation between a poet and their own soul:

Why, my soul, are you downcast?
    Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
    for I will yet praise him,
    my Savior and my God. - Psalm 42:5

So how do you quiet down that anxious part of your brain in order to find some peace? Reflect here with a favorite author and then maybe do some deep breathing as well.

Stop trying to protect, to rescue, to judge, to manage the lives around you . . . remember that the lives of others are not your business. They are their business. They are God’s business . . . even your own life is not your business. It also is God’s business. Leave it to God. It is an astonishing thought. It can become a life-transforming thought . . . unclench the fists of your spirit and take it easy . . . What deadens us most to God’s presence within us, I think, is the inner dialogue that we are continuously engaged in with ourselves, the endless chatter of human thought. I suspect that there is nothing more crucial to true spiritual comfort . . . than being able from time to time to stop that chatter . . . ” - Frederick Buechner