Q&A for The Inner Voices Workshop:

Why join this workshop?

You will have a more satisfying life along with a whole bunch of inner peace.
You get to see your ‘inner voices’, aka ‘parts’, are telling you to think, feel, and do.
You will quickly figure out other ways to think, feel, and do.
You will not have to automatically follow their directives, you will have choices.
Your nasty voices become more ‘right sized’ and your golden voices get louder and clearer.
You will have options you have never had before.

What’s going to happen in this workshop?

This workshop are simple Zoom calls. You will find out what your inner voices, aka parts, are up to and what they’re saying to you. They will not be secret from you any longer and you can work with them directly. Occasionally your inner voices show up as complete sentences that you can actually speak out loud. This is the exact spot we’re going to be pushing on.

Your inner voices will be approached with an attitude of curiosity and gentle humor.
There will be very serious discussions with good laughing mixed in.

What are my ‘Inner Voices’?

Your ‘Inner Voices’ are simply the little ideas that run your life.
They are your personal feelings, ideas, attitudes, thoughts, quiet directives, intuition, judgments, and urges.
They are very much alive and active right now, even as you read this.
Some are good and some are bad. Most of them are simply neutral and boring.
They are not your enemy and they are not always right.
These inner voices have been known by many names; parts, ego, shadows, unconscious, guides, curses, blessings, rules you live by, religion, and many more.

Where do they come from?

Most of your voices were developed before you could even talk. They are actually secret old friends of yours with a few brand new voices mixed in. You might listen to a stranger making shit up and decide his truth is now your truth too. (On-screen media is the very best delivery system for bad ideas that humans have ever come up with.)

Your inner voices are mostly secret from you and they’re pretty much just little kids. They settled into place and developed without your knowledge, and they now are your actively directing your life. Like most kids, they are hungry for your attention and are actually looking for some direction from the elder, wiser, and much more mature you.

What is their job? What do they do for me?

Their job is simple, they tell you what you should think, feel and do.
They are subtle and are often in conflict with each other.
Here are some examples of what they’ve already decided for you:

Where you live and what you get angry at.
How much and exactly what you eat and what you wear and how you wear it.
What religion is best for you and what your favorite politics are.
How much you exercise and what you believe people are going to judge you by.
How angry you get and who you’re going to marry.
What your dreams and aspirations are and what would be absolutely shameful to you.
When you are happy and how you make your money.
What your favorite color is and how sad you are.
What powers you project onto others and who you are attracted to.
How scared you are and who you need to be scared of.
What do you believe what other people judge you by and how horny you are.
How and when to ask for a raise and who repulses you.
If you should be embarrassed and who you hate.
When to launch your smart ideas and when to launch your dumb ideas.
When you are depressed and what gets you excited.
What makes you happy and the things you should just shrug off.
If you stay focused and decisive or distracted and confused.
When to say the wrong things and they inspire you with surprisingly brilliant ideas.
They launch your creativity and curiosity, as well as your depression and despair.

Layout of the call:

There are only three parts to each call. The stories we tell is where the magic happens.

1. Every man does his check-in for a minute or two with cross-talk kept to a minimum. If you’ve got something important going on, ask for time. We might spend the whole evening working with only that and that’s just fine. Our agenda can wait. This is a place for support, wisdom, feedback, and ideas if you want them. You are not alone.

2. Stretch Reports, about 45 minutes.

3. New Stretches, about 30 minutes. Each call runs for 90 minutes.

Notes:

Each call runs for 90 minutes.
We have a limit of 10 men in this workshop. If you are in you are expected to be at every meeting. If you can’t make it just let the leader know.
Leadership of these calls rotates among all of us. When it’s your time, you will have backup, coaching, and training. These meetings pretty much run themselves and the leaders role is mostly watching the time and herding the goats.

What is a ‘Stretch’?

A stretch is an outgoing action done by you alone. No agreement is needed from another person to be successful in your stretch.
– Bad stretch: “I will have had five job interviews by our next meeting.” This is not good because you’ll need agreement from five other people to be successful.
– Good stretch: “I will call at least five people and request job interviews with all of them.” All the calls are outgoing action and No agreement is needed from anyone else.
Measurable stretches are excellent. “How much, by when?” is an excellent phrase to consider.
– Bad stretch:“I’ll do push ups this week.”
– Good stretch:“I will do 30 push ups a day for the next six days.”It’s simple to know when you have made it or failed.
A good stretch is designed to squeeze you out of your comfort zone, they are not supposed to be comfortable. While working your stretch expect to be surprised what your inner voices start saying to you. Some of them are wise and some are just stupid.
When you call out your stretch it’s a good idea to have the scribe read it back. You want to make sure your words are dead accurate.
You may be asked to say your stretch with a simpler sentence and smaller words. This will focus you very quickly and, for some reason, often involves laughter.

Stretch Reports:

Stretch reports start with stating you stretch. Next you start sentences with; “A part of me felt …”
You will find it very interesting seeing what voices come up for you when you’re succeeding or failing at your stretch. For this workshop your job to pay attention to what your parts, aka you ‘inner voices’, are saying to you.
When you listen to those inner voices, you are gathering grist for your story when it’s time to report. When it’s time to tell the story of your little adventure, those voices give substance, life, color and spice to it.
If you complete your stretches it’s tempting to not to say very much. We’re here to listen to your struggles and to hear about your success. If it’s been a good stretch for you there will be stresses and troubles to over come. Successful stretch reports are often told with humor.
You will fail to make their stretches once in a while and that’s expected. When you fail you will not be scolded or shamed. Here, we are focusing on the voices inside you that are having you succeed or fail. Those are the guys that are deciding for you, and you want to have a little talk with them.
If you are often not making your stretches it’s time to me more careful with what you commit to. We are not here to generate consistent failures.

If you are interested in joining this workshop please use the contact form. Thank you.