Take time to listen to your inner voice: Talking to yourself is a sign of genius | Sunday Observer

Take time to listen to your inner voice: Talking to yourself is a sign of genius

30 April, 2017

I talk a lot to myself. And I don’t mean only in the privacy of my own home. I talk to myself while I’m walking down the street, when I’m driving or even shopping. Thinking out loud helps me to keep my concentration on the activity on hand, makes me focus more on my work, and gives me some pretty brilliant ideas while chattering to myself;

It also makes me look insane. “Only crazy people talk to themselves,” you might think. “They’re conversing with the voices inside their heads. And, they need psyche help.”

I’m sure many people seeing me wandering down the street talking to myself would have thought, “The crack addiction is strong with that one.”

Revelation

Last week, I was reading a story appearing in a reputed US medical journal and that piece made me feel highly elated. Talking to oneself, medical specialists say, is a sign of genius. The smartest people on earth talk to themselves.

Look at the inner monologues of the greatest thinkers. For example, Albert Einstein also talked to himself. Reports say, he “used to repeat his sentences to himself softly.” There were hundreds of others like him.

So, you see? I’m not alone, and I’m not completely daft. I’m just really smart.

The report says, talking to yourself makes your brain work more efficiently. In a study printed in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, psychologists Daniel Swigley and Gary Lupya theorized that talking to yourself was actually beneficial.

Experiment

In one experiment they gave 20 people the name of an object (like an apple). Participants were told to find the item in the supermarket. During the first set of trials, the participants were bound to silence.

In the second set, participants were asked to repeat the object’s name out loud as they looked for it in the store. According to psychologists, participants found the object with greater ease when they spoke to themselves while searching. The deduction was: Saying things out loud sparks memory. It solidifies the end game and makes it tangible.

Hold on for a moment! The psychologists caution you. If you want to find something, speaking the object’s name out loud is helpful only when you’re familiar with it. If you don’t really know what an object looks like, saying its name can have no effect. If, on the other hand, you know that bananas are yellow and have a particular shape, by saying banana, you’re activating these visual properties in the brain to help you find them.

Benefits

In other words, if you get a good dialogue going between you and yourself about what you need, you can make real headway in clarifying your thoughts, shaking off your hidden stress and even lifting your mood. I’d go so far as to say the practice is a form of mindful self-concentration.

Talking is all about practice. We need to hear our voices ourselves to learn how to use them.

Now, let me pinpoint a few benefits of talking to yourself.

Diminishes your loneliness. It can be a comforting reaction to help fill a quiet place with the sound of your own voice when you’re alone.

“All right. We’ll go to the vet, grocery store, and visit Gayathri. First vet, then store, then Gayathri...” Talking to yourself about an agenda allows you to stay on track. The mind can only process one task at a time even though we think we are multitasking. Enter talking to yourself. “We may be walking, driving, or preparing a meal when all of a sudden we are verbally responding to our thoughts, also known as ‘talking to ourselves.’” Doing this, helps your mind to sort through the day’s clutter so we can better prioritize.

Goals can be achieved. From finding something in the grocery store to remembering various tasks at work, psychologists maintain that talking to yourself lets you visualize a specific scenario unfolding. Voicing your goals aloud can help them come to fruition. Doing so, allows you to properly focus attention and prevent distractions, so you can become more successful. It’s worth trying, from weight loss success to career goals.

Takes stress off. It’s a normal way to cope with stress and anxiety, and helps alleviate pressures in life. The sound of your own voice essentially acts as a reaffirming behaviour, reinforcing that something is indeed doable.

As a result, you’re less likely to hold thoughts in (because you’re speaking them to yourself) and more apt to voice concerns and feel more confident during stressful times.

Can solve problems on your own with greater ease. This is because when a problem arises, it’s common to run the issue with a friend or family member. However, when you talk to yourself about a problem rather than rely on others for solutions, you’re more likely to become more independent. Listening to your own voice can boost your confidence and make you more effective at problem-solving.

Help bolster your intelligence by organizing your thoughts. Remember, it’s essential that you speak respectfully to yourself. The two psychologists explain that negative phrases such as, “You idiot!” should be eliminated because it’s worse than not talking to yourself at all. “Begin talking to yourself like you are your own best friend,” they say.

Afterthought

Talking to myself means that I am self-reliant. There’s something about our words travelling from mouth to ear with no one else listening. I admit on occasion to even asking myself “What do you think?” after explaining one possible solution to something that’s troubling me. (“You,” of course, is my subconscious, which I’m happy to tap for advice). Talking out loud is a great way for my conscious brain to communicate with my subconscious.

We “crazy nuts” are the most efficient and intelligent of the bunch. Do you know why? Because, unlike others, we take the time to listen to our inner voices, out loud. 

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