The image I came up with to describe your brain, this week, is an old school boombox. Take it back to the days of the sage green carpet in my bedroom in 6th grade, the Mariah Carey tape ended on side one, so I have to take it out and flip it over and put the cassette back into the player. There is a right speaker and a left speaker, and if you had a really cool set up you could detach each one and set them in different spots in your room and have “surround sound.” So let’s pretend that this boom box is your brain. It’s playing music and you can’t quite differentiate between the left speaker’s sound and the right speaker’s sound because it all blends together when you’re laying on your floral bedspread.

The analogy is this. As your thoughts are playing automatically in your mind and you are sorting out something complex, like your game plan for your next move in life, career, relationships, etc. You begin to notice that there are certain lines repeating that weren’t necessarily your own voice. The left speaker, then is the voice of other people. Whether it’s negative or positive feedback, you are hearing their praise, their criticisms and that sound is just mixed in with the right speaker. The right side is your own voice of wisdom. It says “I don’t want to be a tattoo artist. Even if everyone says I’d be so good at it, I don’t like needles! Or people!” The right speaker knows who you are better than the left speaker. Now, don’t get me wrong, the right speaker has all kinds of feedback too. When you’re looking in the mirror and your love handles are hanging over your jeans, be sure that it’s your own critical voice going “Wow, looks like it’s time to lay off the Oreo’s, girl.” There are good and bad thoughts coming from both speakers. But, at least we can conquer our own negative thoughts and tell ourself it’s not true.