One thing I have discovered, about myself, is that I really like to talk to myself. I am not completely certain, but, I am pretty sure this fact does not certify me as crazy.
The reason I talk to myself is because it is how I learn. I learn a lot by hearing myself talk. And, as it turns out, learning by hearing yourself taught is pretty common.
A couple weeks ago, I posted one of the most important articles I have ever read. It is titled, "Managing Oneself." And, it was written by Peter Drucker.
Click here if you have not yet read the article.
In Managing Oneself, Drucker advises that we ask ourselves the question, "How do I learn?" Peter says, "there are probably half a dozen different ways to learn."
One of the main ways to learn is by hearing yourself talk. This is how Drucker, himself, learns. And you might, too.
There is, however, one big challenge. A lot of us who talk to ourselves feel ashamed for doing so. We worry that people will think we are unhinged or even crazy.
This is a tendency which needs to be countered. And, the counteraction is the reason for this post.
You see, this past week I read another interesting article. The article was titled, "People Who Talk To Themselves Aren’t Crazy, They’re Actually Geniuses." And, it was written by Gigi Engle.
I am not sure talking to yourself will make you a genius. But, I am certain it does not qualify you as crazy.
Here is the article, in its entirety:
“If I
were my peach smoothie body butter, where would I be?” I say to no
one while I search for my favorite lotion. Then: “Aha! Here you
are. You rolled under my bed.”
I talk
to myself a lot. 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 in my
office or when I'm shopping.
Thinking
out loud helps me materialize what I'm thinking about. It helps me
make sense of things.
It also
makes me look insane. Crazy people talk to themselves, right? They're
conversing with the voices inside their heads. If you're yammering on
to nobody, everyone thinks you're a mental patient.
I'm sure
many people have seen me wandering down the streets of NYC and
thought, “The crack addiction is strong with that one.”
I'm
positive I look disturbingly similar to Gollum in “Lord Of The
Rings” when he dotes over his “precious.”
Well,
the joke is on the judgmental assh*les who give me a side-eye on the
train. (By the way, I SEE YOU!).
Talking
to yourself, it turns out, is a sign of genius.
The
smartest people on earth talk to themselves. Look at the inner
monologues of the greatest thinkers. Look at poetry! Look at history!
Albert
Einstein talked to himself. He wasn't an avid social butterfly when
he was growing up, and he preferred to keep to himself.
Einstein.org
reports that he “used to repeat his sentences to himself softly.”
So, you
see? I'm not alone, and I'm not completely bonkers. I'm just really
smart. Ha!
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 hypothesized that talking
to yourself was actually beneficial.
We're
all guilty of it, right? We might as well celebrate it and study the
benefits.
In one
experiment, Swigley and Lupya gave 20 people the name of an object
(like a loaf of bread or an apple), which they were told to find in
the supermarket.
During
the first set of trials, the participants were bound to silence. In
the second set, they repeated the object’s name out loud as they
looked for it in the store.
According
to Live Science, test subjects found the object with greater ease
when they spoke to themselves while searching. Saying things out loud
sparks memory. It solidifies the end game and makes it tangible.
Talking
out loud to yourself helps you only when you know what you need.
If you
want to find something, speaking the object’s name out loud is
helpful only when you’re familiar with its appearance.
You have
to know what it is you're looking for; otherwise, you'll just confuse
yourself. According to Lupyan, “Speaking to yourself isn’t always
helpful—if you don’t really know what an object looks like,
saying its name can have no effect or actually slow you down. 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.”
In other
words, you can't make sense of something without knowing what you're
dealing with. If you know what you need and verbalize its name, you
will better your chances of finding it.
You
learn as a child by talking to yourself.
Babies
learn to speak by listening to grownups and mimicking what they say.
Talking is all about practice.
We need
to hear our voices to learn how to use them.
According
to Live Science, “self-directed speech can help guide children’s
behavior, with kids often taking themselves step-by-step through
tasks such as tying their shoelaces, as if reminding themselves to
focus on the job at hand.”
Think
about all the munchkins you know. Haven't you seen them talking to
themselves while they play with a toy car or favorite stuffed animal?
A
toddler can remain focused by talking through his problems.
If a
small boy is playing with his toy cars, he might say, “The small
car can fit through this garage door, but the big truck is too big.”
At the same time, he’ll test which of the cars fit inside the toy
garage.
A child
learns by talking through his actions. By doing so, he remembers for
the future how he solved the problem. Talking through it helps him or
her make sense of the world.
Talking
to yourself helps you organize your thoughts.
What
helps me the most when I talk to myself is that I’m able to
organize the countless wild thoughts running rampant through my
brain.
Hearing
my issues vocalized calms my nerves. I’m being my own therapist:
Outer-voice me is helping inner-brain me through my problems.
According
to psychologist Linda Sapadin, talking out loud to yourself helps you
validate important and difficult decisions. “It helps you clarify
your thoughts, tend to what's important and firm up any decisions
you're contemplating.”
Everyone
knows the best way to solve a problem is to talk it out. Since it's
your problem, why not do it with yourself?
Talking
to yourself helps you achieve your goals.
Making a
list of goals and setting out to achieve them can be hard to do. It
can be overwhelming.
Talking
yourself through those goals is a much steadier way to achieve them.
If you walk yourself through the process, each step will seem less
difficult and more concise.
Things
will suddenly seem doable, and you'll be less apprehensive about
diving into the problem.
As
Sapadin puts it, “Saying [your goals] out loud focuses your
attention, reinforces the message, controls your runaway emotions and
screens out distractions.”
It puts
things in perspective and grounds you.
Talking
to yourself means that you are self-reliant. Like Albert Einstein,
who “was highly gifted and acquired early in his life the ability
to exploit his talents,” people who talk to themselves are highly
proficient and count on only themselves to figure out what they need.
We
“crazies” are the most efficient and intelligent of the bunch. We
take the time to listen to our inner voices, out loud and proud!
