Why talking to yourself is a GOOD thing

We all talk to ourselves. It is something we do all the time, whether we are aware of it or not.

For example, think about the moment you walked into the kitchen and saw that pile of dishes, waiting there just for you. What went through your mind?

Was it: "Yippy! Dishes!” or the more likely: "Why do I always have to be the one cleaning up around here?!”

This might seem funny to you now, but I’m sure that at the time that pile of dishes was NOT amusing. In fact, that one sentence in your head may have put you in a particular mood at that time. Whether or not it was a good mood depends on that simple communication to yourself.

Now let’s think about a more complex situation. Maybe one in which you were challenged by something, and failed the challenge.

A bar of chocolate for example.

In your head you knew you shouldn’t eat it, you already had so much food today and you’re NOT hungry. But that chocolate was talking to you, telling you how delicious it was going to be and you just had to eat it (and you know it wasn’t the chocolate doing the talking right?).

And after you eat it, you start telling yourself off: “Why did I eat it?! I don’t need any more calories! What an idiot!” and so on, until you make yourself so guilty you end up eating another bar of chocolate to make yourself feel better…

For now I’m just scratching the surface, but it’s clear we all have this constant conversation in our head, and by now I think you understand that the way we go about managing this conversation has a huge impact on us.

But here are the good news:

THE WAY WE MANAGE THIS CONVERSATION HAS A HUGE IMPACT ON US.

If we learn how to talk to ourselves in an effective way, one that allows us to go beyond an automatic reaction to a situation (by enabling us to control our response!), we can have greater control over everything we do and how we feel in almost every moment.

So I’ll say it again – talking to yourself is a GOOD thing, all you need to do now is to learn how to initiate an effective conversation.

More about that in another post :)