Mindfulness and meditation practices are really all about attention, and where you are at, at any one moment. When someone is rude and says to you, you appear not to be totally there, or present, the question is where are you?
Are you even aware that your attention has wandered or asked yourself where that part of your mind really is? Is it with memories of the past and notions of could have been past scenarios, or speculations over plans, and ambitions for your future or even other’s future selves.
The poem I wrote below explores these questions and themes and raises further questions about the inner conversations, or self-talk that is always going on in our heads. I find it interesting that hypnotherapy places a high priority on developing focused attention and healthy, positive and productive inner dialogue.
Our inner self-critic can be very cruel at times and our minds wander, we ruminate and self-sabotage our effort in life, we set ourselves up for failure, before we have even tackled anything.
I am a realistic optimist, and critical of magical thinking and positive psychology that asserts that everything is possible when we do not have any money or opportunities to achieve what we most want.
However, when we line up our ducks in a row, marshal our resources, think creatively and logistically we can succeed when those inner gremlins who may have been people from family, school, or from the past helped set our expectations of ourselves so low.
A key aspect of hypnotherapy is for the therapist and client to write a hypnosis script together that will strengthen the client’s confidence, soothe their fears, and guide them on imagery-based inner journeys towards overcoming their challenges and achieving positive outcomes in their lives.
Examples include chatting and mingling with other people for those with social phobias, mastering presentations to an audience by someone who fears public speaking, or relaxing and being fully present for giving a recital despite performance anxieties.
Be Mindful: Observe the Dance of Our Inner Narrative Voices
Where am I today inside this shell?
Which voice speaks from that precious well?
Am I a child, an adult …
a writer, artist or sexual self?
I speak from all my parts, and from point to point,
within my heart. Which voice speaks aloud?
Why can these voices not shout with one accord?
They appear like a cacophony of voices at war.
Who is observer? Who narrates? Who sets the agenda?
And who asserts the pace? Are all these voices in this
choir in tune? Are they quiet or subdued?
Or waiting their turn to sing their lyrical songs?
Which voices do you listen too, as each cry out
with needs unmet within you? Where am I today
speaks the voice of my body? How does it feel,
this stomach, groin, full of appetites?
Listen carefully to those body sounds. Body voices
whispering quietly sharing discordant frowns.
Where is the pain? What needs release?
Where can I help you? Where need you feast?
Emotions writhe like a serpent hiss. Fear, anger,
joy and loss, all speak with power beyond belief.
These emotions strive to articulate and sing their songs,
of people, causes, reactions gone wrong.
Emotions have their place, on this stage of my soul’s
sacred space. I listen to thoughts circling in my head?
Voices from the past. Voices from people long since
dead.
Voices unspoken, regrets hidden away.
Ghosts haunting these spaces, mute in disarray.
Who am I and who are you,
as we leave fragments of our memories askew?
Dialogues of voices, of feelings and thoughts.
Intuitions unformed that amount to naught.
Instincts that guide and warn.
These are the sounds that fill the void.
This is the dance of each narrative voice.
You need only listen, observe, and learn
Needless to say, the therapy space is the place for each of these elements to be given an opportunity to speak, be heard and understood. These themes are further developed in Internal Family Therapy (IFT) as well as Transactional Analysis (TA) which deals with clarifying intentions, communication and voicing our needs and ideas. “Therapy with a voice” focuses on the information, history and nuances in our voice as vocal fingerprints of our inner selves.
So I encourage us all to find a reflective practice that feels helpful to control and discipline our mind and attention whether that be transcendental meditation, Buddhist practices, simple mindful breathing, or self-hypnosis with progressive muscular relaxation, or even a quiet cup of tea gazing out of the window for a few moments during the day.
These issues are becoming ever more relevant in an era of social media distractions and the demands of the attention economy through our online devices, advertising and fake news channels.
Further reading:
(1) Therapy with a voice A Cognitive Analytic Approach to the Inner Life of Talk and Conversation, Steve Potter and Lucy Cutler, Pavillion Publishing and Media Ltd, Shoreham-by-Sea, 2026
(2) No Bad Parts: The Bestselling Guide to Healing Trauma & Restoring Wholeness with the Internal Family Systems Model, by Richard Schwartz Link to Amazon & further titles
(3) Transactional Analysis: 100 Key Points and Techniques
by Mark Widdowson Link to Amazon & further titles