We need to manage our monsters—each of us has our own versions—with all the respect we owe to something that has the power to kill us.
We need to build very strong cages out of solid, kind arguments against them. At the same time, we can take comfort from the idea that the night-time monsters will get less vicious the more we can lead reasonable, serene lives.
With enough gentleness and compassion, we can hope to reach a point when, even in the dead of night, as these monsters chafe at their collars and strike at their bars, we will remember enough about ourselves to be unafraid and to know that we are safe and worthy of tenderness.
An inner voice is an outer voice that got internalized.
Understanding this helps us recognize that our harshest self-critical voices often originated from external sources and don't represent our true nature.
The only way out is through. You will take more of the thing that poisons you until you turn it into a tonic that girdles the world around you.