Talking without stoping out loud doesn’t make sense. My mom always said conversation is like tennis and you have to pass the ball back and forth to have a good banter. Why is it that those manners don’t seem to apply inside my own mind? How can I ever hear God if I don’t stop talking?
Meditation and many other mindsets I’m sure have a much more eloquent way of saying this, but it truly just dawned on me that I need to be quite inside my head to listen. I’ve learned the everyday societal norm of not monologuing 24/7 outside with my words, but inside my head is another story. My thoughts never stop and I’m constantly thinking in different directions like a pin ball machine. My Safari tabs (did you know the max limit is 500? I didn’t but just found that one out) and my inner thoughts are similar - always opening new ones but rarely coming to a conclusion.
I just saw somewhere on Substack the ‘marine nap’ concept where you elevate your feet for 20 minutes and set a timer and take a nap or just rest. It sounded better than my usual kid’s nap time YouTube binge (though I do love a good ‘ol Paige Lorenze vlog rerun) so I just gave it a try. And I could not shu-up (in our house as a kid the ‘t’ in shut-up was not aloud, feels appropriate here).
John 10:27 says “My sheep hear my voice; I know them and they follow me.” I want to hear God’s voice! I want to follow where He wants me to go! But how can I hear if I never listen?
Recently I’ve been peeling back layers of noise - getting rid of Instagram and most social media (but hey hi Substack, this one still feels good), getting rid of all fragrance in our house from cleaning products to perfumes to makeup felt like a physical noise lifted off of my body, and this new layer of my own internal noise feels like a good next step.
How’s the noise level inside your head today? (*Cue Hilary Duff’s the little voice in my head.) Here’s to learning to have conversation manners on the inside too.
xx
Aubree
PS - still not sure about blogs vs Substack but for now posting on both. Thoughts?