There’s a voice in your head that knows exactly what to do:
Drink enough water.
Stop doomscrolling.
Go to bed early.
Then, there’s another that ignores it completely.
Like most people, you likely live inside that mental tug-of-war every day. And chances are, you think more discipline and more good habits are your way out.
But when doing more still doesn’t work, shame creeps in, and you don’t know what to do about it. “Something must be wrong,” you’d think to yourself.
Here’s where licensed psychotherapist Britt Frank would hug you out of your misery. As her book, Align the Mind, reveals, you’re not suffering from a lack of motivation, but rather, a hidden conflict between different parts of yourself.
“This book,” she says, “is for anyone who has ever thought, ‘Why is it that I know what I’m supposed to do, but I can’t seem to do it?’”
Watch her full interview with the Mindvalley Book Club:
Who is Britt Frank?
Britt is a licensed psychotherapist and trauma specialist whose life’s purpose is to help people move out of analysis paralysis and into action.
Flip through Align The Mind, and you’ll immediately register her signature way of imparting wisdom. She translates complex psychology into practical tools that others find easy to use when motivation wanes.
Because the truth is, it’s all too easy to self-sabotage instead of self-help. According to a 2023 study published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, the brain works harder to process negative statements instead of positive ones. So when yours hears “don’t mess this up” or “try not to fail,” it often focuses on the core idea of the thought instead of the negation attached to it.
Thankfully, Britt’s book gives form to an experience too many of us live with, quietly, every day. In the U.S., for one, anxiety disorders affect about 40 million adults each year, or roughly 18% of the population. Now, as a study in the Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment showed, negative thinking patterns like rumination are among the features of these conditions.
Now, why pray tell, is Britt passionate about helping you unpack your self-talk? Well, simple: she’s lived with a crazy inner critic herself for a long, long time.
“I hated myself for so many years,” she reveals to Mindvalley co-founder and Mindvalley Book Club host Kristina Mänd-Lakhiani.
This early experience shaped both Britt’s career path and, eventually, writing journey. Before Align The Mind, for instance, she explored at great length how insight alone fails to create change in her earlier book, The Science of Stuck.
Across all her work, her main message is clear: our mind isn’t “one voice.” It’s a system of “parts.” You can think of them as different (though related) selves.
As she says, “Everybody has multiple personalities. We all have [different] voices in our heads.”
What “parts work” is, according to Britt Frank
If you’ve Googled “Align Your Mind Britt Frank,” you’ll likely encounter the term “parts work.” At its core, it’s a discipline Britt established to help us hear—and harmonize—all the different inner voices that coexist in our heads.
“Parts work,” she says, “is a very broad term that talks about how to work essentially with all of the voices in our heads.”
Most of us already know this reality. Just look at how we talk about ourselves every day.
Say you’re curious about skydiving. In mulling it over, you might tell your best friend, “I really want to go skydiving, but a part of me is scared of heights.”
Britt’s own favorite example—brain rot—even hits closer to home. As she tells Kristina, “Part of me knows I should log off and sleep, but another part keeps doomscrolling.”
See, parts work takes that everyday language seriously. Each “voice” in your head, Britt says, represents a different interest, concern, instinct, fear, or priority, all belonging to the same person. All of them, you.
So ultimately, this approach helps you understand yourself as a whole rather than through a single isolated part, personality, voice… whatever you want to call it. Each part has a job. Each one is trying, in its own way, to keep you safe.
And parts work helps you see that the inner conflict between different parts of you is merely a signal. Instead of shaming yourself into action, it gently shines the light on what’s actually slowing you down from building that dream business or finally going to the gym.
“Imagine if they could all get along with each other,” Britt points out on the importance of building self-worth through positive self-talk. “Parts work shows you how.”
The science of inner talk
Peer closer, and you’ll see that Britt’s work firmly stands on a deep foundation of established psychological science. For more than a century, many psychology experts have sussed that the mind is, in fact, multi-layered. And its layers don’t always “agree” with each other.
Like Sigmund Freud, who described the psyche as a shared space between:
- The id, or the baseline drives and impulses that push for pleasure and relief,
- Your ego, the conscious inner mediator that weighs reality and consequences, and
- The superego, which is the internal voice of moral rules and social expectations.
Then there’s Carl Jung, who argued that the self is made up of different aspects that show up depending on context, like:
- The ego, the center of conscious awareness and identity,
- The persona, the social mask you wear to function in society,
- The shadow: or all traits, impulses, and qualities you’ve learned to reject or keep out of awareness, and
- The anima or animus, that is, your inner feminine or masculine aspects shaped by personal experiences and cultural expectations.
Britt’s work draws heavily from this lineage, especially modern parts-based psychology and research on inner speech. She’s quick to point out that you’re not broken if you procrastinate on the things you care about. Turns out, your mind is simply pulled in different directions, which is where parts work comes in.
Now, here’s a catch: it isn’t for everyone. “There are some people who don’t actually think in words,” she says, “they have no internal monologue.”
So, if you’re among the 10% of people who, as reported in Psychological Science, experience little to no internal voice during ordinary thinking, then Britt’s approach isn’t the right fit. It just won’t work “if you don’t think in terms of words when talking and thinking to yourself.”
Britt Frank’s tips on harmonizing your inner world
When different parts of you pull in different directions, Britt wants you to remember that it’s all good. “There’s nothing inherently wrong with you,” she shares. “There’s a reason that we have these conflicts in our thinking life.”
The point is to ease the tension, which you can do with the steps:
- Stop treating inner conflict as a personal flaw. Here, Britt suggests replacing woe-is-me statements like “Why am I like this?” Ask yourself this instead: “Which part of me is speaking right now?”
- Name those different parts instead of demonizing them. Saying “a part of me is scared” creates space. Fighting the thought tightens it. Working through the tug-of-war starts by recognizing a part when it shows up.
- Validate the loud “part” without indulging its behavior. Understanding a part doesn’t mean letting it run the show. Britt compares it to good parenting: you acknowledge the feeling while maintaining the boundary. When you want to avoid the workout, skip the call, or abandon the project, recognize how tired or afraid you actually feel. Then do it anyway, to keep you moving forward.
- Assign your inner critic the role of a coach. “Our job is to train the inner critic,” she says, so it doesn’t shame you. This means changing how you respond when it appears. Swap “you’re going to mess this up” for “slow down and prepare for the best.”
- Identify what you’re protecting yourself from. Self-sabotage often occurs when you fear embarrassment, rejection, or failure. But when you see the truth for what it is, it’s easier to stop panicking… and do what you have to do anyway.
And whenever in doubt? Turn to Britt’s book to guide you through the fog. As she would always tell you, “Thoughts don’t necessarily mean truth.”
(Disclosure: This is an affiliate link. If you make a purchase through it, Mindvalley Book Club may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.)
Fuel your mind
Progress, Britt Frank shows, comes from learning how to work with your mind. And it’s done by listening closely, understanding what lies beneath resistance, and moving forward with clarity rather than self-blame.
This radical self-acceptance? It’s what the Mindvalley Book Club stands for.
It’s a space for ideas that help you make sense of yourself and the world you’re living in. Yes, ideas that don’t just sound good on paper but can actually change how you think, decide, and act in real life.
Each week, Kristina Mänd-Lakhiani sits down with authors like Britt to explore books chosen for their depth, relevance, and ability to shift perspectives. You’ll hear directly from the thinkers shaping how we understand the mind, behavior, personal growth, and more… through the might of their words.
By joining the Mindvalley Book Club, you’ll get:
- Early access to books that challenge and expand how you see yourself,
- Candid conversations that go beyond surface-level insights,
- Practical ideas that influence how you work, relate, and make decisions,
- A global community drawn to curiosity, self-awareness, and meaning, and
- Consistent learning that fits into your everyday life.
When your mind expands, everything in your life will follow suit. And that’s where real change begins.
Welcome in.
