You are not the voice in your head

If you have a brutal inner critic that constantly tells you you're failing, overthinking, or not doing enough, I need you to stop arguing with it. You cannot debate your way out of a negative thought loop. Instead, you have to use a clinical strategy called externalization. What's up? My name is Rich. I'm a licensed therapist. And here's 30 seconds of therapy. Let's talk about: Externalizing the Echo. Most people mistake the thoughts in their head for their actual identity. They think, "I am anxious!" But clinically, your brain is just an organ that secretes thoughts based on past programming. When you treat that inner critic as yourself, you absorb the stress. But when you physically separate the voice from your identity, treating it like a noisy background echo instead of the absolute truth, you change your brain chemistry. You hear me talk about spacing and grace in every single episode. But let's realize that grace is just changing the channel. You can't always stop a specific radio station from broadcasting in your mind, but grace is giving yourself the space to say, that's just background noise. You aren't the chaos. You are just the room the chaos is happening in. You don't have to dance to it. The moment you separate the voice from you, and give it a ridiculous name, the volume instantly drops. You are not the chaos. You're just the room the chaos is happening in. Step back and watch the thoughts pass. Give yourself some grace today, my friend.