No, well, if you think like that, then I really happen to turn to myself with some kind of rhetorical question, praise / scold myself, discuss the problem with myself, etc. Not by ear, of course (although …). This is also called talking to yourself?
It turns out that this is quite useful for itself …
Talking to yourself improves memory
In a study conducted by The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, it was concluded that dialogue with oneself helps a person to quickly choose the one he is looking for from a group of objects. Study participants who uttered the name of the subject they were looking for out loud performed significantly better on the task than those who searched silently.
The researchers say that self-talk helps the brain process visual information better. Take professional chess players, for example. They need to memorize the positions of the pieces on the chessboard, plan a strategy for the game several moves ahead and predict the moves of the opponent. They have to work with a very large amount of visual information. Self-talk helps them successfully remember important details of the information they need.
Another study suggests that ignoring the need to talk to oneself negatively affects the ability to perform multiple tasks at the same time. This is an important skill in today's reality. Talking to yourself will help you clearly define what to do and when, so that you can do everything on time.
We have a limited amount of memory. Our brain is a kind of computer. It has a storage where data can be stored for a long time, and RAM. Self-talk helps the person to better process the data they are currently working with. In short, talking to yourself improves your working memory.
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Self-talk helps you better deal with your emotions
Talking to yourself is also beneficial because it helps you better manage your emotions. Did something go wrong as planned? Talking to yourself will help you to adequately look at what happened and find possible options for action instead of panicking. You might say to yourself, “Let's say something went wrong. But this is not the end of the world. I'll try to do it differently."
It is easier for people who talk to themselves to maintain a positive attitude than those who do not practice such things. Optimists use self-talk as a way to get rid of negative thoughts and look at the situation in a more positive way. Such people are more productive, and life brings them more joy.
In everything and always relying, first of all, on yourself, you increase your self-esteem. You are your own best friend, directing your thoughts in the right direction and encouraging yourself. When you praise yourself for the work you have done, you start to feel proud of your accomplishments.
Self-talk helps improve concentration
This way you can better focus on the things that need your attention. We already mentioned that talking to yourself is useful when multitasking. In addition, such a conversation will help you keep your attention on completing a task for the required period of time.
When you are talking to yourself, you can direct your attention to what needs to be done in the moment. You only listen to your voice and everything else ceases to exist for you.
How to learn to talk to yourself correctly
Ask yourself questions
Ask yourself about things related to what you are doing at the moment. This could be a question like, "Will I be able to successfully complete this task?" Answer yourself to the questions posed. For example, say to yourself, "Of course I will succeed." You are talking to yourself in a positive way. You are setting yourself up for future success. Your self-confidence is contagious.
Give yourself instructions
Tell yourself what you need to do in the first, second, third stages of your work.
Cheer yourself up
While doing some work, say to yourself: “Yes, I'm doing it well” or “This is just great. I knew that I would succeed."
Drive negative thoughts away
You catch yourself doing negativity like, "I can never do it all the way it should." Convince yourself to stop thinking about this. This will remove the negative before it ruins your mood.
Talk to yourself in a more positive way
Instead of convincing yourself that you are sure to ruin everything (this is how you program yourself for possible mistakes in advance), say: "I will succeed." Use positivity in communicating with yourself.
Forgive yourself
All people make mistakes. Forgive yourself. Tell yourself, “Nothing. I didn't do it on purpose and I will definitely fix everything.
But there are situations when a person conducts a dialogue with an interlocutor visible only to him, a fictional character. He actively talks to him, asking and answering questions, gesturing and expressing a whole range of emotions.
It happens that a person, speaking for each character separately, changes the timbre of his voice, intonation and facial expressions.
In this case, there is a suspicion of the development of schizophrenia or a split personality, when a person becomes cut off from the world, loses a chain of connected thoughts and behaves inappropriately.
Schizophrenia is characterized by persistent hallucinations: the patient hears voices ordering him to carry out a specific command. At times, these orders can be dangerous to others.
How many times have we heard about the facts of the attack of an obsessed subject on civilians without any reason?
To avoid unhappiness, loved ones should be especially vigilant and pay attention to the manifestation of the disease. An often invisible interlocutor and conversations with him are signs of schizophrenia.
PS and here's another interesting one. The rubber duck debugging method is a psychological method for solving a problem, delegating it to a mental assistant. The method is described in the book "The Pragmatist Programmer".
The essence of the method lies in the fact that the tested person puts a toy duckling on the desktop (or imagines it mentally, in fact, a duck is conditional, an object can be anything), and when he has a question that is difficult to answer, he asks it a toy, like a living person, as if it can really answer. It is believed that the correct wording of the question contains at least half of the answer, and it also gives an impetus to thoughts, directing them in the right direction, translating the "stream of consciousness", in fact, "a mess in the head", in the form of formal terms..