Each person has an inner world that no one else can see or comprehend. It can be a powerful and magical place, but very few people take the time to care for it, explore it, cultivate it, and make sense of it. What do you discover when you look into your inner world?
Many of us focus too much on the outside world. These goals include what we want from our jobs, the possessions we desire, how we look, and who we won’t spend time with. We often forget to consider that our inner world and the external world affect our life experiences.
Our inner world refers to our thoughts and beliefs, and mindset. It is not something we are taught in school or early life to regularly check in with our thoughts to see if they impact our lives. However, our thoughts influence how we feel and the actions we take.
We often criticize ourselves harshly and think that this will help us motivate. However, this negative inner world can only make us feel worse about ourselves and lead to unhelpful behaviours. Imagine me telling myself that I am fat and unattractive. This doesn’t motivate me to eat healthily. I then eat to deal with the low mood. Let’s also say I tell myself that I am not smart enough or competent enough. This inner narrative makes me anxious and prevents me from applying for my dream job. Our interactions with the world around us affect how we think.
The thoughts we have about ourselves and others make up our inner world. When we aren’t careful, our inner world can be a hostile place.
- We re-play past negative events over and again in our minds, torturing ourselves with what someone else said or did. This is effectively hurting ourselves over time, and not changing the behaviour of the other person.
- Worrying about the future can cause anxiety, which can lead to a loss of perspective and worry about things that will never happen.
- Thinking a lot about what other people think of you is a mistake. We can’t tell what other people think.
- Be worried about failure and not being good enough and you will stop taking chances and taking risks in your life.
Our inner world impacts every aspect of our lives, from the relationships we have with others, to the career choices we make, and even our relationship regarding food. (You can find more about the effect our inner world can have on our relationship to food here ).
It can be exciting to start exploring your inner world and your thoughts. It can be a rewarding process to begin to explore your inner world and your thoughts.
- Are you more compassionate and kind to yourself than harsh and critical?
- Are you noticing the same thoughts you have about a topic? Or a group of topics every day?
- Are you prone to focusing too much on the past or future? Does this make you feel sad, anxious, stressed, or stressed? What are your current priorities?
- Do you have evidence or an assumption to support a thought you are having? e.g. You may have thought, “She must hate me because I was so quiet”, but she hasn’t said anything to suggest that she doesn’t like you.
- Are you a believer in yourself and your capabilities or do you doubt your worth?
- Are you more inclined to look for the positives and positive things in others and yourself, or the negatives and flaws?
- Are you looking for the gift in your situations? Or all the possible problems?
Our internal world is one of the most fascinating things. We can shape, shape, and cultivate it. This allows us to learn more about ourselves and make our lives happier. It is a great gift as a psychotherapist to see someone’s life change when their inner world changes.
