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Muttering under their breath, talking to electronic devices, thinking out loud… From the outside, such people seem strange. Journalist Gigi Engle on how talking to yourself out loud is more beneficial than you might think.
“Hmm, where would I go if I was peach body lotion?” I mutter under my breath as I turn the room around looking for the vial. And then: “Aha! There you are: rolled under the bed.
I often talk to myself. And not only at home — where no one can hear me, but also on the street, in the office, in the store. Thinking out loud helps me materialize what I’m thinking about.. And also — to understand everything.
It makes me look a little crazy. Only crazy people talk to themselves, right? Communicate with the voices in your head. And if you’re talking non-stop to no one in particular, people usually think you’re out of your mind. I look exactly like Gollum from The Lord of the Rings, referring to his «charm».
So, you know — all of you who usually squint at me disapprovingly (by the way, I see everything!): talking to yourself out loud is a sure sign of a genius.
Self-talk makes our brain work more efficiently
The smartest people on the planet talk to themselves. The inner monologues of the greatest thinkers, poetry, history — all this confirms!
Albert Einstein was talking to himself. In his youth, he was not very sociable, so he preferred his own company to any other. According to Einstein.org, he often «slowly repeated his own sentences to himself.»
Do you see? I’m not the only one, I’m not crazy, but very much the opposite. In fact, self-talk makes our brain work more efficiently. The authors of the study, published in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, psychologists Daniel Swigley and Gary Lupia suggested that there are benefits to talking to yourself.
We are all guilty of this, right? So why not actually find out what benefits it brings.
The subjects found the desired object faster by repeating its name aloud.
Swigly and Lupia asked 20 subjects to find certain foods in the supermarket: a loaf of bread, an apple, and so on. During the first part of the experiment, participants were asked to remain silent. In the second, repeat the name of the product you are looking for out loud in the store.
It turned out that the subjects found the desired object faster by repeating its name aloud. That is, our wonderful habit stimulates memory.
Ooto it only works if you know exactly what it looks like what you need. If you have no idea what the item you are looking for looks like, saying its name out loud can even slow down the search process. But if you know that bananas are yellow and oblong, then by saying “Banana”, you activate the part of the brain responsible for visualization, and find it faster.
Here are some more interesting facts about what self-talk gives us.
Talking to ourselves out loud, we learn the way children learn
This is how babies learn: by listening to adults and imitating them. Practice and more practice: to learn how to use your voice, you need to hear it. In addition, by turning to himself, the child controls his behavior, helps himself to move forward, step by step, to focus on what is important.
Children learn by saying what they are doing and at the same time remember for the future how exactly they solved the problem.
Talking to yourself helps organize your thoughts better.
I don’t know about you, but in my head thoughts usually rush in all directions, and only pronunciation helps to sort them out somehow. Plus, it’s great for calming the nerves. I become my own therapist: that part of me that speaks out loud helps the thinking part of me find a solution to the problem.
Psychologist Linda Sapadin believes that by speaking out loud, we are affirmed in important and difficult decisions: “This allows clear your mind, decide what is important, and strengthen your decision».
Everyone knows that voicing a problem is the first step towards solving it. Since this is our problem, why not voice it to ourselves?
Self-talk helps you reach your goals
We all know how difficult it is to make lists of goals and start moving towards achieving them. And here verbalizing each step can make it less difficult and more specific. You suddenly realize that everything is on your shoulder. According to Linda Sapadin, “Voicing your goals out loud helps you focus, control your emotions, and cut out distractions.”
Eyi gba laaye put things in perspective and be more confident on your feet. Finally, by talking to yourself, you mean that you can rely on yourself. And you know exactly what you need.
So feel free to listen to your inner voice and respond to it loudly and out loud!
About the Expert: Gigi Engle is a journalist who writes about sex and relationships.