Voices in your head.

Recently I had a conversation with a friend of mine which I want to share with you all as I think you will benefit from.

He said to me “there comes a point when the voices inside my head take over”. Bemused I asked him what he was talking about. Of course I had heard people talking about fighting demons before and casual mentions of voices but in all honesty I really didn’t understand it. Even when I was hallucinating in the mountains during an ultra I don’t remember any voices, seeing things that were not real? Yes! But voices? No.

He went on to explain how he was “waiting for them to arrive so he could fight them” Wow I thought so much aggression and energy for something I am not sure exists.

Of course what he was referring to was the point at which the body starts to suffer, physically and mentally and we ourselves start to create doubt, go into a state of negative self talk as our desire and drive to reach our goal seems to fade.

“Wait a second” I said. “Isn’t this moment we are talking about……the almost magical moment of a challenge or the journey to a goal? Isn’t this moment that we search for? Isn’t this the moment that tests us, that sometimes breaks us, often defines us and when we beat it allows us to develop deeper in our relationship with pain, our ability to suffer, to learn, to grow and ultimately to triumph.”

I went on to explain how the moment is just the same but the reaction is the difference between winning and loosing. When you start to search for a voice it will come, it will tell you to stop, it will wear you down and you may well fail. But the moment where the voice comes is the moment we must yearn for and it’s a moment that’s not a voice but the true magic of the human body and a truly unique opportunity.

You have to embrace it, smile, then grit your teeth and work like hell. That moment is everything you trained for, it’s part of the process that you committed to starting and it’s the most rewarding part of the challenge when you come out the other side.

There are no voices, it’s you, you create them because that’s what you are focusing on. Focus instead on the magnitude, the lessons you are learning and the fact that in that very moment you are becoming a better human being.