Do You Talk to Yourself? That's a GOOD Thing!

Positive "self-talk" -- including addressing yourself by name! -- turns out to be a sign of strength, and it even improves your self-image. So, keep on mumbling to yourself! 

A Today.com article (http://www.today.com/health/talk-yourself-out-loud-here-s-why-experts-say-s-t76531) has professionals weighing in on why self-talk both focuses us and buoys us up. Older notions held that odd people talk to themselves, perhaps suffering from a bit of dementia. But self-talk is merely a part of normal internal dialog. 

Our brains actively represent our feelings, ideas, intentions, and deliberations, I believe, both symbolically (representationally) and also linguistically. Self-talk, as actual words and sentences in our heads, unfortunately can be negative and destructive, kind of like a continuation of abusive or at least critical commentary made to us by others, even from when we were growing up. This is the idea of a critical internalized parent. 

Yet here is an opportunity to amend the internalization of earlier, less than supportive messages about ourselves, every time we wonder out loud, "OK, Carol, so where did those keys go, this time?" When we might hear ourselves say out loud, "Robin, you lose so many things because you're just a big loser," it's time to swap out negative self-talk with an affirming, encouraging, optimistic version -- out loud, and said to "Robin." 

To tell the truth, I'm personally not terribly wild about the first name approach, but to each, their own self-referent that feels best. Just be sure to stay positive, not necessarily about the content of your internal dialog, but definitely in terms of how you treat yourself in these talks and remarks to yourself! Over time, they can be exceedingly therapeutic. We can discover ourselves -- and maybe also our keys -- in a clearer, friendlier way.