The Benefits of Talking to Yourself

[elleng]

'A stranger approached me at a grocery store. “Do you need help finding something?” he asked. At first, I wasn’t sure what he meant. Then the realization kicked in: I was talking out loud, to myself, in public. It was a habit I’d grown so comfortable with that I didn’t even realize I was doing it.

The fairly common habit of talking aloud to yourself is what psychologists call external self-talk. And although self-talk is sometimes looked at as just an eccentric quirk, research has found that it can influence behavior and cognition.'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/08/smarter-living/benefits-of-talking-to-yourself-self-talk.html?

[ret5hd]

1. The main benefit is that the conversation is so much more interesting than most!

Always relevant, always cogent, etc.

[hibbing]

3. And always so much more humorous

All my smarmy and funny comments while driving always seem to make myself laugh.

Peace

[ret5hd]

4. I know! I kill me too!!!

[Boxerfan]

2. Thank goodnes for dolts with blue teeth or whatever....

Nobody even notices me talking to-myself of course. I'm very good company & carry the spirits of friends as my voices of reason.

[frogmarch]

5. I do it, and

the other day after scolding myself for forgetting to mail a letter, I told myself to get off my back.

[elleng]

6. Oh YES, Get off your BACK!

MARCH!

[alarimer]

7. I do this all the time

And I'm sure I must seem insane, but I know I am not actually talking to someone else, even if I am imagining them there.

God, that sounds crazy. Mostly though, it is in the realm of "thinking out loud." Wondering where the grocery store has moved the eggs to, that sort of thing. But often I am rehearsing conversations I plan to have or re doing interactions I have had.

I think that, because I used to do this all the time when I was at home by myself, it's a hard habit to break in public.

Or I a thoroughly nuts, which might be true in any case.