There’s a voice inside you that is constantly speaking…in whispers…in shouts… in chatter…in murmurs…in monolog…in guidance…and in dialog between YOU and YOURSELF. The voice goes on incessantly accessing each moment and then moving you to the next. This is your inner dialog – responding to life as it unfolds before you and within you.

From this unfolding, there’s a voice you project into the world – your outer dialog. What you do with the information that you hold in your heart and head is that voice – what you say, how you act, choices you make, ways you interpret the next moment…all your interactions.

A beautiful quotation attributed to the Buddha is “We are what we think. With our thoughts we create the world.”

Wherever you spend your time; whatever you read or watch; however you move through your day ultimately becomes the fabric of your inner dialog. Watch a lot of movies…it becomes you; read a particular author or perspective…it becomes you; spend a lot of time in a certain place…it becomes you…and on and on it goes.e

When you spend time each day in stillness and silence…it becomes you. And it begins to awaken you a bit more to your unconditioned self – the part of you that is untouched by “the voice.” The part of you that is whole, pure, infinite, unconditioned, and open to the moment.

Each day, as you meditate, your inner dialog is infused with tiny drops of this stillness…of this silence…thimbles full of your unconditioned self. As the days add up…those thimbles become teaspoons then ladles…until you are awash in buckets of stillness and silence flowing through you. At a certain point …the still part of you –unblemished by all that inner chatter and conditioning – becomes the dominant aspect of your essence.

And that’s when the powerful transformation begins to unfold as your outer voice is tinged with pure unbounded consciousness – pregnant with possibilities because it is unconstrained by all the years of conditioning, reactivity, and reinforcement. Suddenly…one day you awake and your inner dialog and your outer dialog are aligned. The compassion that fills your heart flows in your words and deeds; the defenselessness that once scared you becomes the first response to a harsh comment; the expansion into unknown possibilities that you feared becomes your friend as you gently loosen your grip on constricted ways of thinking.

In that moment, your inner dialog and your outer dialog become one. And your thoughts, words, and actions flow from a place of stillness and conscious choice making rather than the old conditioned inner voice.

It’s a gentle process. And it flows slowly at first as it creeps into intimate conversations, difficult exchanges, moments of self-doubt, and judgment in your darkest hours. As you surrender to this incremental wave of “new” thinking, you begin to feel easiness where there was once anxiety, calm where there was once stress, reflection where there was once reflexiveness; and acceptance where there was once resistance.

With each day, and within each moment, the world starts responding to you differently – closed doors open; big scary monsters morph into new opportunities, challenges become learning opportunities, and setbacks reveal themselves as life lessons.

When your inner dialog and your outer dialog are aligned the world unfolds before you with grace and ease. And it all starts with the first OM.