Inside Voices Please
Photo by Jace & Afsoon @jacegrandinetti
Before listening to any of the following songs and poems you must be cautioned that they are highly memorable. :-)
“I believe that words are strong, that they can overwhelm what we fear when fear seems more awful than life is good.”
in·side voi·ces
concept
/inˈsīd/ /vois/
1. a modulated relatively calm voice, considered polite and socially appropriate when speaking indoors, as at home, school, office, or an elevator, as opposed to an outside voice, similar in decibel level to a person speaking while simultaneously listening to music with their earbuds, their voice is unmodulated, disproportionately, freakishly and awkwardly loud in the context of speaking to a person 6 inches away from you.
2. common phrase used by elementary school teachers to calm down children ages 4-14 after play time.
”Inside voices, please, children.”
Entry 2
1. internal dialogue
2. private speech.
3. micro thought that flashes across our mind, and invisible silent words spoken to self when looking into a mirror.
4. internal speech, usually one or a few words uttered when we do something right, when we do something wrong.
5. one word label or disciplinary word we use when we remember a past mistake, usually negative.
“Idiot, loser”
6. the hum - the inner constant running, one-way feeling or tone, negative, positive, or neutral, that reflects our self-perception.
We all have it. Even if you are in denial, you still have it and, if you don’t have it you will get it. Sometimes we are so busy living the packed, busy, calendared, notification alert life that we don’t hear the crack of dawn, the breeze, the birds, our heart beat or even the inside voice - the tone, pitch, timbre and volume. Like an invading virus, it has woven itself into our mental DNA, latched onto the fabric of our psyche, placentaesized to our gut, our second brain. It has become an öhrwurm.* (pronounced Earworm in English)
*ear·worm
/ˈirˌwərm/
Noun, Irritant
1. an irritating, catchy song or tune that runs continually through a person's mind.
"My personal earworm is Baby Shark, doo, doo, doodoo, doo, doo.”
2. earwig, according to an old myth, a type of worm which can crawl into the ears of people, camping temporarily, or living permanently, feeding on your brain, laying eggs, and wreaking general mental and emotional havoc.
3. a large highly destructive agricultural pest which feeds on corn and cotton crop
Earworms are prickly, sticky, superlong, invasive organisms with a recurring scent, color, and wormy infinity ringlike structure. The problem with Earworms is that this particular breed, the Inside voice worm, named In-ter-num-vox-vermis, (Latin for Internum – Inner, Vox -Voice, Vermis – Worm) obviously we use Latin, the language of taxology because of its linguistic stability, is that eventually it blossoms, spores, and becomes Internumvoxparasitus, which is extremely difficult to remove. This adaptive, aberration is so parasitic that it actually fuses to the wave pattern of thinking and distorts it into chipping, pecking, sapping staccatos; screaming, enervating sopranos; castrating, whining castratos; and groaning, mumbling, bumbling, kvetching, basso profundo.
What is your internumvoxvermis? Which one is your tone? And what kind of music is it? Is it metal, trap, pop, blues, trance, punk, lullaby, parody, vaudeville, lubbock, crusty punk, horror core, psy trance, darkstep, hardstep, drone, jump up or elevator, or bounce and conscious? **
Do you hear an organized, flowing melody or do you actually hear specific lyrics?
What are the actual words of the jingle? What is your inside voice saying? Please pause for a moment and write them down in the comments section below the blog.
1. “I’m so stupid.”
2. “I can’t do it.”
3. “I am a failure”
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten @jcotten
4. “You’re such a failure”
5. “Ouch! I’m so embarrassed, I wish I could just disappear.”
6. “I don’t trust anyone”
7. “It’s too hard.”
8. “It’s no use trying”
9. “I give up.”
10. “I’ll never get it right”
11. “I’m not pretty/handsome.”
12. “If only I…”
13. “I can’t trust anyone. I’ve been hurt too much.”
14. “You’re such a loser!”
15. “You’re ugly.”
16. “I’m not enough.”
17. “I’m never enough.”
18. “It’s too late for…”
19. “I’m too old to…”
20. “What’s the point?”
Is your inside voice talking down to you in third person…with a statement starting with “You are…”? Or has it settled in a little deeper, owning you and saying “I am...”? Either way we have to press reset.
Photo by Brett Jordan @brett_jordan
I informally asked a few people how they debug earworms.
Option 1 - Identify the worm.
Option 2 – Do hard calculations in their head.
Option 3 - Overwrite the worm with a better song.
Option 4 – Call a Friend.
Option 5 – Workout.
Option 6 – Write down the words and scramble the words and then sing the song.
Example: Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo Shark Baby.
Some of these options may work with resetting the inside voice. Dr. Lisa Firestone commented on steps to progress in her book which she co-authored with Mr. Robert Firestone and is entitled: “Conquer Your Critical Inner Voice”. *** Some of the points mentioned were that we need to identify what exactly the critical voice is saying, and recognize where the voice is coming from because inside voices were formally outside voices. Next, challenge those voices and rewrite the script.
One of the best pieces of advice I’ve come across is a picture by Elise Grave below. Treat yourself as your own best friend, kindly and gently.
My best earworm came after a virtual home school science class about energy, matter, gravity and physics. At the end of the class, we were all saying goodbyes. My 12 year old student, Mayra****, waited until everyone said their piece.
She said: “Mister Chris.”
“Yes, Mayra.”
“You matter.” She then smiled and logged off.
The Critical Inner Voice - Whiteboard Animation
* https://forvo.com/word/ohrwurm/
** See full list of 250+ genres at this website https://www.musicgenreslist.com/
****Name has been changed.