Kay:
Hey family. Welcome back to the Kay & Shi Show.
Shi:
This week, we’re featuring some of our favorite books and authors and we cannot wait to share these with you.
Kay:
We are so excited to get into it. So, each day of the week, Monday through Thursday, you’re going to get a different author with several books that we’re going to discuss, and then of course you’ve got your Friday Roundup episode.
Shi:
Love that, and love where we’re starting off this week, which is Kay and I’s number one recommendation for a book. If you only take one recommendation, this is the one that we would give you. We love all of these books and all of these authors, but this is the most transformative book for us and that’s the book “The Untethered Soul” by the author, Michael Singer.
Kay:
Now, when we first encountered this book, it was the fall of 2019 and it was recommended to us from a stage by Tony Robbins, who said that he gifts this book to people in his family for Christmas and if it’s good enough for Tony Robbins to gift to people, we figured that maybe it could be a gift to us.
Shi:
What we love about this book in particular “The Untethered Soul” is the insights inside of it. You actually don’t get to know the author at all in this book, but you do get to know his story in his next book called “The Surrender Experiment.” So, if you find yourself listening to or reading “The Untethered Soul” and you really enjoy it, then we would highly recommend the other works by Michael Singer. He’s even got a new book coming out in May of 2022 called “Living Untethered,” how to take kind of the principles and the theories out of “Untethered Soul” and apply them to your life. But that big, most transformative idea out of “Untethered Soul” that was just soul-shaking for us was this idea that you are not the voice in your head.
Kay:
Now, the voice in your head is something that you are probably pretty dang familiar with. In fact, let’s just get familiar with it really quick. You know I’m going to say a sentence, or a quick phrase and I just want you to think it back to yourself. Okay. So, let’s just go la-la-la-la-la. Now you think that in your own brain. Ready, your turn. Bet you heard a little voice in there, didn’t you?
Shi:
Now, if you heard that voice singing la-la-la that means that you in fact have this narration inside. Most of us do. Yes, there is a very small sliver of the population that only thinks in pictures and does not think in articulation of language. But most of us hear a voice in our head dictating and narrating our entire lives.
Kay:
Now, one of the biggest, most transformative things that came from this book was the idea that if you can hear this voice, that if there is something or someone or some entity inside, that is the listener of that voice. If you can hear it, then who’s listening?
Shi:
Right. Like that alone, just pause and stop on that for a minute. If I was solely the voice, I wouldn’t be able to hear it. If I was solely my emotional experience, I wouldn’t be able to feel it right_ So, this idea that there is that voice in your head, but that’s not you, that’s not your 100% entire identity and your soul articulating to you. It’s actually a function of your brain, right, and it helps keep us alive and it helps us discern our environment and make fast decisions and we love our voice. In fact, your voice can be your best friend and your number one encourager, and your thinking partner. But it, for many of us, can be a very detrimental neurotic inner roommate as Michael Singer likes to say that if somebody outside of us was talking to us in the way that sometimes our voice narrates inside of our heads, we would call them crazy and we would kick them out. This realization for us allowed us to feel that separation and then start to get back into the driver’s seat where we can say, I understand and hear what you’re saying, voice, and I’m not even going to banish you or ask you to stop, but I’m not going to accept or receive that as my identity.
Kay:
Well, if you’re anything like us, you know, like Shila said, sometimes that voice can be less than constructive. Have you ever had thoughts in your own head? Like, you know, you’re looking in the mirror before you leave to go out and you find 18 flaws, right. You’re looking, your hair looks funny and oh, I feel weird in the clothing that I have, or I’m not looking forward to what’s coming up in this space and your thoughts end up harming your emotions or making you feel a certain way. Then you kind of get through it and you’re like, man, that didn’t feel very good, or my inner self-talk isn’t very constructive. But that degree of separation and understanding that that talk isn’t you, that you are the experience of that brain function. You’re the experiencer, or at least you’re another part of that just helps you to bring some awareness that you don’t always have to believe the not-so-nice things that your brain might say to you.
Shi:
So, this book is all about untethering your soul from that voice and allowing your soul to be what’s in charge, be that awareness, that energy, that spark, that spirit, whatever it is that you want to call it. It is the listener to that voice, and it is what we can put into the driver’s seat that consciousness piece. And we hope that this little dive into this one concept from the book maybe intrigues your interest enough to either listen to the Audible or read the book. It’s definitely our number one recommendation and a great place to start here in our book club series.
