Soliloquy of the mind

Journey into soliloquy

Relieving your loneliness by unleashing your inner voice, the practice of self-talk leans more on the cathartic spectrum than the crazy. According to the Australian online youth mental service Reach Out the unspoken voice is the subtle running commentary in the background of your mind. With no one to share our thoughts with, we can knock down the walls that imprison our thoughts and feelings by means of self-conversation.

Self-generated talks, however, are not just mere motivational speeches in the mirror, as they can also be mental messages that internally affect us to perform better. It can be used more as a mandatory command to our brain, as explained in the article published in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science.

Over a course of time, our mind can trick us by giving instructions unconsciously like when you were still learning your way to your college building. Because you are in a strange new place, you instruct yourself when to turn left or right, or when to take the stairs. But when the brain is eventually familiarized with a certain place, we unconsciously ignore the instructions we once had. This unlearned behavior can bring positive changes in you, as stated in Time magazine’s article Talking to Yourself: Not So Crazy After All.

Like our mind’s intellectual lighthouse, instructional self-talk develops and enhances a good sense of attention by illuminating what is important, leaving distractions in the dark. Moreover, this method can also improve decision-making by helping us understand how, why, and when we perform actions. Cognitive and emotional reactions are also controlled, keeping us on track with the task that we are expected to accomplish.

As they say, the only person with authority over you is yourself, and self-talk can play a key role in achieving who you want to be and what you want to accomplish. Instructions we give ourselves might just be the perfect voice for us to be motivated to work and conquer the mountains of unfinished homework and insurmountable deadlines.

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