Michael Singer: The Untethered Soul, His Teachings, Books and Courses

“You have a mental dialogue going on inside your head that never stops.” That is the opening line of Michael A. Singer’s The Untethered Soul, and it is where his whole teaching begins. [1] His books have sold to readers around the world, and three of them, The Untethered Soul, The Surrender Experiment and Living Untethered, became New York Times bestsellers. [2]

His profile covers his life, books and courses. This article is about practice: how to take his ideas off the page and into an ordinary day, with ten everyday moments to work with and a simple 30-day plan.

New to Michael Singer? Read our full Michael Singer expert profile for his life story, best videos, books and courses.

The shift in one sentence

Singer’s core idea is that you are not the voice in your head; you are the one who hears it. [3] Once you notice that, a small gap opens between you and your thoughts and feelings. Everything else in his work grows from that gap.

In a personal note introducing his online course, he says people have asked him for years why the inner voice is always talking, why so much of what it says is negative and stressful, and how to be free of it. [1] His answer is not to fight the voice or argue with it, but to relax, step back and let what is passing through you pass.

He also writes that “trying to achieve happiness by getting what you want is actually limiting your happiness,” because you end up struggling with life instead of experiencing it. [1] The practice is less about getting life to behave and more about letting your inner energy flow freely, whatever life brings.

A simple daily practice

Here is one way to build his ideas into a normal day. None of it takes extra time; it changes how you meet what is already happening.

1. Morning intention. Before you pick up your phone, take three slow breaths and decide that today you will keep your heart open, whatever happens. Singer teaches that this decision is the most important one you can make. [3]
2. Notice the narrator. Several times a day, simply notice what the voice is saying, as if overhearing a talkative roommate.
3. Relax and release. When you feel tension rise, relax your shoulders and the area around your heart, and let the feeling pass up and through instead of tightening around it. [3]
4. Evening review. Before sleep, recall one moment when you let something go, and one when you closed up. No judgement, just noticing.

Singer explains this approach with Oprah Winfrey in a short Super Soul Sunday clip on freeing yourself from negative thoughts. [4]

Ten everyday moments to practise letting go

Singer’s view is that life itself is the best teacher, because it keeps giving you chances to let go. His course describes the most effective personal growth technique as using life to remove your inner blockages, not compensating for them. [1] These ten moments come up for almost everyone:

1. Stuck in traffic or a queue. Notice the voice complaining. Relax your hands, let the irritation move through, and enjoy the pause.
2. A hurtful comment. Feel the sting, relax around it, and respond once the first wave has passed.
3. Worry at night. Notice that the voice is rehearsing problems. You do not need to solve them in bed; let the thoughts come and go.
4. A mistake at work. Let the embarrassment pass through, then fix what can be fixed.
5. Comparing yourself online. Notice the tightening when you see someone else’s success. Relax and wish them well.
6. An old family button. When a familiar reaction rises, treat it as a chance to release a little more of an old pattern, what Singer calls a samskara. [3]
7. Plans changing. Notice the voice insisting things should be different, then turn towards what is in front of you.
8. Waiting for news. Feel the anticipation in your body and let it move rather than gripping it.
9. A difficult conversation. Stay relaxed in your chest and keep your heart open while you speak honestly.
10. Good news. Enjoy it fully, without clinging. Letting go works for pleasant feelings too.

For racing thoughts in particular, see our overthinking guide.

Surrender in work and relationships

In The Surrender Experiment, Singer tells how he tried to stop letting his personal preferences run his life and instead served what life put in front of him. That path led him from years of meditation in the woods to founding the Temple of the Universe and the Medical Manager software company. [2] The central theme of the book, in Wikipedia’s summary, is “surrendering yourself to life itself.” [2]

In practice, surrender at work can look like this: do your best on the task in front of you, say yes to reasonable opportunities you would normally dismiss out of habit, and let go of how others respond. In relationships, it can mean listening fully without preparing your reply, and letting small irritations pass instead of storing them. Singer talks more about what surrender means day to day in his Sounds True talk Living a Life of Surrender. [5]

Our guides to setting boundaries and stress management are good companions to this.

A 30-day plan

• Week 1: notice. Each day, catch the voice in action at least five times. Simply say to yourself, “there it is.”
• Week 2: relax. Add the relax-and-release step each time you notice tension. Start with small irritations.
• Week 3: keep your heart open. Choose one recurring situation, such as a commute or a meeting, and practise staying open through it every day.
• Week 4: surrender. Each day, say yes to one thing life offers that you would usually resist, and notice what happens.

Listen to an episode of his official podcast, such as Breaking Free from Negative Thought Patterns, once a week to keep the ideas fresh. [6] Pair the plan with a few minutes of quiet sitting each morning; our meditation guide shows simple ways to start.

What related research says

• Stepping back from thoughts. A 2015 review described decentering, observing thoughts and feelings rather than being caught in them, as a shared ingredient of mindfulness and related approaches, linked to better wellbeing. [7]
• Seeing yourself from a distance. Research on self-distancing found that reflecting on upsetting experiences from a step back helps people make sense of them with less distress. [8]
• Accepting feelings. Across laboratory, diary and long-term studies, people who habitually accepted their negative emotions and thoughts reported better psychological health. [9]
• Naming what you feel. Putting feelings into words reduced activity in the brain’s alarm centre, the amygdala. [10]

Frequently asked questions

How do you let go, according to Michael Singer?

Notice the voice in your head, relax your body and the area around your heart when tension rises, and let the feeling pass through instead of closing around it.

What is the first line of The Untethered Soul?

“You have a mental dialogue going on inside your head that never stops.”

What does surrender mean in Michael Singer’s teaching?

Doing your best with whatever life puts in front of you, rather than letting personal likes and dislikes run your life. It is active, not passive.

How long does it take to practise The Untethered Soul?

You can start today. A simple plan is to spend a week on each stage: noticing the voice, relaxing, keeping your heart open and surrendering.

Keep exploring

• Michael Singer: full expert profile
• Mindfulness guide
• Meditation guide
• Overthinking guide

Sources

1. Sounds True: Living from a Place of Surrender, a personal note from Michael A. Singer
2. Wikipedia: Michael Alan Singer
3. UntetheredSoul.com (official site)
4. OWN, Super Soul Sunday: How to Free Yourself of Negative Thoughts
5. Sounds True: Living a Life of Surrender with Michael A. Singer
6. Sounds True, The Michael Singer Podcast: Breaking Free from Negative Thought Patterns
7. Bernstein et al., Decentering and Related Constructs, Perspectives on Psychological Science 2015
8. Kross and Ayduk, Making Meaning out of Negative Experiences by Self-Distancing, Current Directions in Psychological Science 2011
9. Ford, Lam, John and Mauss, The psychological health benefits of accepting negative emotions and thoughts, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2018
10. Lieberman et al., Putting Feelings Into Words, Psychological Science 2007

By Saj Ali, founder of Self Help Supermarket.