An internal dialogue is a conversation with oneself. The enemy inside: the danger of dialogue with oneself
Are you talking to yourself? When we hear people talking to themselves out loud, we at least find this strange. But have you noticed that all people, without exception, speak to themselves? Only this we no longer find it strange.
If someone tells you unpleasant things, what are you doing? You begin to take anger into your mind! You can imagine yourself angry, you can scream at him or say something that can offend his pride. But sometimes, people spend hours exposing themselves to a negative dialogue.
In the head of each person there is a continuous conversation, on which he spends a lot of energy, time and attention. This conversation continues from the moment of awakening from sleep and falling asleep.
The internal dialogue occurs constantly when you work, study, read, watch TV, talk, walk or eat. There is a constant assessment of people, commenting on what is happening, planning and analysis of dialogue with people.
This inner dialogue is similar to the snowball effect. The more time we spend talking with ourselves, the more we become attached to the internal dialogue. Emotions and internal energy join the internal dialogue, which in turn leads to a negative impact on behavior, decision making and the overall performance of a person.
In many cases, internal dialogue is negative; it reinforces any negative attitude and behavior. Only a few people have enough faith in themselves and in their abilities to conduct a positive internal dialogue. This process and the effect of a positive internal dialogue becomes similar to positive statements. Constant thinking in such a rhythm affects the subconscious, which in turn perceives these words and thoughts. A negative internal dialogue leads to negative results, and a positive internal dialogue, on the contrary, causes positive results.
And you can use this process to your advantage. It is active even when you are not aware of it. But if you understand and realize this, you get the opportunity to manage the internal dialogue in your favor. You can turn it into a positive dialogue, and when that happens, then you realize that you have great power at your disposal.
Try to be aware of the thoughts that come to your mind. Watch calmly what is happening in your head, even if after a few minutes you can forget that you are doing this. The internal dialogue continues, even if at this time you are doing something physically, because it is not so easy to mentally separate yourself from your thoughts, from the internal dialogue.
Again and again, pay your attention to what is happening in your head, and, in the end, you will be able to realize the internal dialogue even faster. Watch what happens in your head while developing internal strength.
Whenever you catch yourself in a useless conversation with yourself, stop the internal dialogue and direct your thinking to something good and more productive. Change the subject and words, just like an audio tape recorder works - you can change the tape at any time. Change the words of your internal dialogue to positive thoughts about good health, happiness, and success.
There is another great ability, but its development requires a lot of concentration and willpower - you can try to stop the internal dialogue in general. Try to ignore the internal dialogue by sending your attention to "vacation." Let your mind calm down. Life will certainly continue, even if the internal dialogue is stopped. Allow your brain a little rest from time to time.
Internal dialogue can sometimes be useful, but more often it’s just useless, incessant chatter that distracts your attention from what you are doing in a given period of time. By stopping the internal dialogue, as well as changing your thinking to something positive, you get the opportunity to manage it. There will soon be a separate discussion about stopping the internal dialogue, and in addition, it should be noted that this ability is of great importance in self-improvement.
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Each of us ever speaks to himself. Strain your imagination and you will hear a muffled chorus of whispering - praising or scourging yourself. There is an opinion that thinking as such is a form of conversation with oneself, says columnist Sarah Sloat. In short, we know ourselves as we know other people — through dialogue.
Here is the definition of talking to oneself given by psychologist James Hardy, who explores this topic: "The dialogue with which the individual interprets his feelings and ideas, regulates and changes evaluative judgments and beliefs, gives himself instructions and encourages himself."
Some psychologists believe that our "I" consists of two parts: one of them controls our mind and perception, and the other simply acts. Talking with yourself can become a bridge between the two.
These conversations can be extremely useful or harmful, depending on how you approach this. Everyone has these conversations in their own way, but here are three tricks that can turn them into a useful exercise.
You and not me
It matters whether you refer to yourself as “you” or say “I”. It is better to refer to yourself using the pronoun of not the first, but the second person, that is, call yourself “you” and also by name. By changing the way we turn to ourselves, we can better regulate our behavior, thoughts and feelings. Saying "you" to yourself or calling yourself by name, we create the necessary psychological distance that allows us to talk about what is happening to us as if a little from the side. This technique also helps reduce stress in people with social phobia, and helps calm down when you think about events after the fact.
Be softer with you
Dialogue with oneself creates a space for reflection, but it is not always to our advantage. The best option is to cheer yourself up. It is proved that attempts to motivate oneself, for example, help athletes maintain the necessary level of energy and increase endurance. Positive conversations with ourselves improve our mood and emotionally support us. Conversely, talking to yourself in a critical way, studies show, reduces self-esteem and increases the likelihood of repeating the same conversations in the future. Psychologists say that a person is able to choose how he thinks, and this largely depends on how we talk to ourselves. Therefore, for your well-being, it is important that you at least speak kindly to yourself.
Use in an emergency
The inner voice helps us control our impulsive behavior. For example, when we say to ourselves: “Just take it and do it!” Or: “Don't even look at this piece of cake!” The participants in the experiment were asked to press a button if they saw a certain symbol. Moreover, they had to repeat the same word all the time, which made internal dialogue impossible. In this case, they behaved much more impulsively and controlled themselves worse than in the other part of the experiment, where nothing prevented their inner voice from sounding.
It is also believed that internal dialogue helps when you learn something new. The key to success here is to make your statements short, clear and not contradict one another. Psychologist Antonis Hatzigeorgiadis, who studies this issue, explains: “By talking to yourself, you stimulate and direct your actions, and then evaluate the results.”
But, probably, the most valuable thing is that talking with yourself forms the self-control and motivation necessary for success. If we tell ourselves that we can be successful, the chances of success are greatly increased.
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“Where did you go?”, “Don’t dare to hide from me, answer me, ay!” - with such phrases people often try to find any objects and things for personal use. Such statements are turned into emptiness, and not to an animate object. They help people focus on the problems that torment them at a particular moment.
Fig. Conversation with oneself: insanity or genius?
Many people like to talk to themselves at home, where no one can hear them. But some even during a walk manage to have a conversation with their inner self. From the outside, it looks, to put it mildly, inadequate. Indeed, almost all the mentally ill have a tendency to talk with themselves.
What do psychologists think about this?
Experts say that talking to yourself is a sign of genius. All great people had the habit of reasoning aloud, scolding themselves, and even leading discussions. They constantly voiced their internal monologues, expressed doubts about this or that occasion. This helped to analyze the situation more deeply and find the most optimal ways to resolve the problems that arose. As a result of this, they often generated ideas that in future humanity recognized as brilliant.
What is the use of talking to yourself?
1. Improving the effectiveness of thinking
Science has proven that thoughts spoken aloud. Scientists conducted an experiment: people who came to the supermarket for shopping were divided into two groups. Everyone was invited to compile lists of acquisitions. People from the first group read the lists, constantly saying the words out loud. The second group of people pronounced the words from the list mentally. The result of the experiment exceeded all expectations: people from the first group who read the list out loud had a more effective thought process, they quickly found everything they were looking for. Conclusion: it’s easier for people to search for something if they express their intentions out loud.
2. Structuring thoughts
When talking with themselves, people act as their own mentors, advisers, and assistants. A voice that sounds aloud takes on the responsibility to declare experiences, doubts and desires, including hidden ones. After all, everyone knows that the best solution to any problem begins with its awareness and utilization aloud. After that, it no longer seems so insurmountable to a person.
3. Training assistance
Pay attention to how children learn the world. First, they listen to their parents, then they repeat what adults have said, and thus they form their own vision of the surrounding reality. For example, a boy playing with an airplane mumbles under his breath that the aircraft will not be able to fly into the hangar, as it is too narrow. That is, the boy speaks out loud his conclusions. It is the algorithm of actions in certain situations that helps in the future to perform actions subconsciously. Therefore, all people need to periodically hear the vibration of their own voice in order to know how to use it correctly.
4. Assistance in achieving goals
The thought process, which is clothed in words spoken aloud, becomes not only more effective, but also helps. To make it easy to overcome difficulties and, make a list of your goals. Reread it aloud from time to time and discuss with yourself,. You will see that the solution will come quickly, and you will still be surprised how obvious it was!
One famous scientist once hypothesized that all geniuses are a little "crazy." Perhaps this is partly true. Remember that only those people who are in harmony with their inner self can speak with themselves boldly.
Some people talk to themselves quite often. For example, while trying to find a solution to the problem. Or in order to deal with today. And also to find the lost item in the apartment. Like in “The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath”: “Where did the glasses go?” Boka-a-ala! ”
And if you are embarrassed to mutter something under your breath while working or walking, then scientists are in a hurry to support you: it is useful. Apparently, those who constantly talk with themselves for many years, can boast of remarkable mental abilities.
Psychologist Gary Lupyan conducted a study in which he showed a specific set of objects to 20 volunteers. He asked to remember each of them. The first group of 10 participants was to repeat aloud the names of the items shown, for example, “banana”, “apple”, “milk”. Then all the subjects were taken to and asked to find objects on the shelves.
The result of the experiment showed: those who repeated the names of objects aloud during the search quickly found the right products. The difference with the "silent" ranged from 50 to 100 milliseconds.
“I keep chatting with me while I search for the necessary items in the supermarket or refrigerator,” says Gary Lupyan. It was personal experience that became the reason for conducting a larger experiment. Another psychologist, Daniel Swingley, worked on the team with Lupyan. Together, scientists came to the conclusion: talking with yourself is not just useful - it can make a person a genius. And that's why.
Stimulates memory
When you talk to yourself, your touch memory storage is activated. This structure is responsible for maintaining a limited amount of information for a short time. When you speak out loud, you visualize the meaning of the word. Therefore, it is remembered better.
Such an effect was recorded during a scientific experiment. Researchers asked participants to learn a list of words. One group of volunteers did this quietly, to themselves, while the other recited the terms out loud. It was those who spoke each word that remembered the whole list better.
Keeps concentration
When you pronounce the word out loud, you automatically call up the image in memory and consciousness. This helps to maintain concentration and not be distracted from the task. In the case of an item search in a supermarket, this works flawlessly.
Wilson Hul / Flickr.comOf course, this will help if you know what the object you are looking for looks like. For example, say the word "banana" - and the brain recreates the picture of a bright yellow oblong object. But suppose, if you say “cherimoya”, having no idea what your favorite fruit looks like, there will be little use.
Clarifies the mind
Is this feeling familiar when thoughts are besieged from all sides? The most varied ones: starting from "What am I doing with my life?" And ending with "Oh, wash the dishes again." A conversation with yourself will help you deal with this. Speak what needs to be done right now. Thus, you are instructing yourself, prompting you to action.
In the same way, you can get rid of unnecessary emotions. Anger, joy and frustration can be easily overcome with the help of such self-programming. In addition, before making a decision, voice it. Hearing yourself as if from the outside, it will be easier for you to understand whether you are really making the right choice or whether it sounds like crazy nonsense.
Sometimes people talk to themselves. Most often, this is a sign of loneliness when you want to talk, but not with anyone. For such people, you can recommend a pet. You can calmly talk with him out loud, it's even funny. Sometimes children talk aloud, often during the game. In this case, they are trying to voice their role, they lack attention. Perhaps such a child needs to play more often with peers so that he does not get used to speak for himself and for the doll.
If people talk to themselves out loud, then they often really lack human attention. In this situation, it is necessary to expand the circle of communication, often go out on the street, communicate with people. Start a business, a hobby, you do not need to lock yourself in. You can try looking for friends on the Internet, this also helps.
Why is another person talking to himself out loud?
Also, from the abundance of information volume that the brain receives during work, many begin to pronounce numbers or words so as not to get confused. This indicates the special care of a person, his fear of mistakes. Of course, this can not be called a pathology. It may look unusual, but not scary. Some people call such things still an egocentric appeal, that is, words to themselves. It can also be an imposition of loneliness.
Mental illness
However, in addition to the usual utterance of text or dialogs into the voice, many are in real disputes with the absent surrounding. Sometimes the conversation looks pretty aggressive. This indicates a person’s mental illness, some of which are congenital.
What pathologies are:
- Psychopathy;
- Schizophrenia;
- Forked personality and others.
Bifurcation of the human personality is a diagnosis, it can be obtained as a result of experienced mental trauma, often they come from childhood. Sexual or physical effects affect the behavior of an adult afterwards. It seems to him that he develops several personalities, moreover of different sexes. There may be about a dozen. He can experience not only depression, but also try to harm himself. Schizophrenia affects many people. They are quite adequate until they start talking to themselves. Often creative people suffer from schizophrenia, it’s like taking care of the stresses of the world around you.
Do not make a diagnosis yourself; consult a doctor
These diseases are already being treated by a psychiatrist, but in any case, you need to examine the person, and not to make an unfounded diagnosis. If a person has experienced severe stress, has been in a state of loneliness for a long time, likes to think out loud, then he will often behave strangely. That is why, the reasons why people talk to themselves can be different, and pathology does not always occur. However, if the family had schizophrenia, you need to keep in mind, then the disease is often inherited and in certain circumstances may well recur.
To find out why people are talking to themselves is not difficult, you just need to contact a specialist, and he will name the reason in each case.
