In this solo talk, Matt Cooke challenges the common identification with the inner monologue that many people experience as a negative or occasionally positive voice. He argues that the true self is the observing consciousness – the “observer,” “witness,” or “awareness” – and that the voice is merely a microphone for the subconscious mind. The subconscious, which stores roughly 95% of our programming, reacts to external stimuli far faster than the conscious mind, sending signals to the inner voice that then narrates criticism, fear, or doubt. Cooke explains that the voice itself isn’t the problem; the underlying subconscious beliefs are. To change the narrative, one must rewire the subconscious through practices such as meditation (which slows brain activity and quiets the voice), visualization, affirmations, and journaling. By repeatedly updating the subconscious script, the inner voice can shift from a critic to a supportive future‑self guide, enabling better manifestation of goals and life changes. The talk emphasizes awareness of the observer, understanding the stimulus‑response loop, and systematic subconscious reprogramming as the path to personal transformation.
Chapters
I honestly don't know why more people aren't talking about this. And what I'm about to share with you, if you truly grasp, will massively change your life. But I want to start by asking you a question, and that question is genuinely, day to day, are you aware of the voice in your head? You know, that one that might be negative most of the time, or more recently might be positive. Are you aware of it? Firstly, because if you are aware of that voice in your head, Then the follow-up question for you is, who's the one listening to that voice? And when we truly grasp that, what we understand is we understand that we're not actually that voice in our head. We are the separation. I call that the observer. There's many names. We can call it the consciousness, the awareness, the witness. But for a lot of people, when we're not practicing or remembering that we're not that voice, we quite literally become that voice. Now, what's not spoken about enough is what that voice even is. And there's many names for it. You know, you can call it the ego, you can call it the monkey mind, the inner roommate, whatever you want to call it. I actually say to a lot of the people I work with and my clients, give it a name. Mine's Myrtle, especially when he's being really annoying. But he's not always negative, and that's the key thing. But it's understanding why this voice in your head is even speaking in the first place. And it's because your subconscious, which is your storehouse, which is your programming, which represents about 95% of who you are, is giving that voice in your head the microphone to speak. So think about this: when something happens in your external world, there's a stimulus. Quite literally, you could be triggered. Something can happen. That's the stimulus. And the response, faster, way faster than your conscious mind, is picked up in your body, in your subconscious. And that then sends a signal up to this voice in your head, and then all of a sudden you start hearing this voice going off. It's this narrator, that's this critic that's fearful, that it's negative, that is telling you every reason why you shouldn't do what you're about to do. The problem is understanding that we are not that voice. So the voice isn't the problem, the subconscious is. So when it comes to, let's say, you right now and trying to manifest something into your life, let's say you have this intuitive impulse, this feeling that You've got to do more. You've got to step into your mission and your purpose. You want to make an impact, and that just feels intuitive. It feels light. But every time you even contemplate that idea, for whatever reason, you just hear this voice saying, what if it doesn't work though? What if I fail? And the problem there is understanding that it's not the voice that's the issue. You visualizing that is sending a signal to your subconscious that's scanning your programming and telling you every reason why in your past based on what people have said to you, or based quite literally on results, why it won't happen. That sends the signal up to the voice, and then the voice then narrates why you shouldn't do it. So it's not trying to fight the voice, it's being aware that the voice isn't you. And then the deeper work is recognizing that what you actually need to do is rewire your programming, quite literally rewire your subconscious. And that's why meditation's so powerful. You know, you can slow down your brain, and as you slow down your brain, this voice in your head naturally quietens down. You can get into that deeper programming, and when you're in that deeper programming, you can start to write a new script. That's science, but it takes time. Whatever beliefs you hold right now have probably been repeated over and over again for years, hence why you're programmed the way you are when you think about change. So when you quite literally separate yourself and look at the voice and understand what the voice is narrating and saying, what it's really giving you is evidence of what you subconsciously believe about yourself. Because you can't attract into your life what you don't believe subconsciously. So whatever you're seeing by the voice, you can then visualize in meditation and start to rehearse and rewire that subconscious but you can also use affirmations and journaling and use the repetition over time to change that programming. And then what starts to happen is when an opportunity or when an impulse to change your life comes along, all of a sudden you're aware that the voice is positive and the voice is saying, "Yeah, go and do it, lean in, take the risk." And literally all of a sudden you've now got the voice of your future self talking. So Remember that you're not your voice. Your voice is the microphone on behalf of the subconscious, and if you change your subconscious beliefs, you'll absolutely change your life.
