The Science Behind: Talking to yourself (Cover-Ishita Baghel)

According to recent studies, people who talk to themselves actually tend to be smarter!

Now you might be thinking "That's weird! It can't be true!", but I've got evidence to support my claim!

A study conducted by psychologists Gary Lupyan and Daniel Swigley proved that those to talk to oneself are geniuses. Talking to oneself helps stimulate your memory, stay focused, and clarify your thoughts.

The question on my mind is "Why do we talk to ourselves?"

When we're born we inherit out very own answer-generating machinery. So when we ask ourselves something this machine fires up potential answers. Potential answers mean that they don't have to necessarily make sense. Just something that could happen. Like when you ask yourself "Is there someone at the door?" your brain could answer "Yes, it deadly zombies from the future here to kill you." Something like it is unlikely to happen, but technically it could happen. This machine is just a generator, it doesn't evaluate the likeliness of these answers.

This isn't always the case. If you already have an answer, then your brain simply throws that one out. People seem to find that saying your problems out loud makes it easier to find a solution. This is why therapy and counseling work so well. Putting your problem out there, seems to make your brain more likely to work more efficiently. Your brain needs to focus on the problem before you can think of a solution. Correction: your brain need to focus on the part of the problem that matters. Sometimes, we tend to overthink a problem for way too long. That happens because we're so afraid of what the solution will be that we forget to focus on the thought we generate.

This doesn't mean that we just keep focusing and focusing until we get a solution. Sometimes, you just gotta let go. Wait for the answer to come to you. A few days ago, I spend two hours trying to find the name of a book. I couldn't remember the name of it, nor the author. I searched all over the internet, yet I couldn't find it. Then I decided to let it go. Two minutes later I remembered the name of a character and five minutes later I had the title of the book on a screen in front of me.

Moral of the story: Sometimes you just gotta let the idea come to you. Maybe it'll just pop up.

So next time you find yourself talking to yourself, don't be embarrassed! You just proved that you're a genius!

Until then...

Stay Curious ;)

Love,

Sarah

Sources:

https://www.lifehack.org/334241/why-people-who-talk-themselves-are-geniuses-according-scientists

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/in-control/201705/we-all-talk-ourselves

https://www.nbcnews.com/better/health/talking-yourself-normal-here-s-how-master-it-ncna918091