It has long been described as a sign of madness, before scientists found that it was far from it. Talking to yourself or self-talk is an action that not only helps you materialize your thoughts, but also helps you make better sense of things.
Jumia Travel, the leading online travel agency, shares 5 reasons why talking to yourself is anything but crazy.
It Speeds Up Your Brain
Talking to yourself can actually help you complete tasks faster and helps improve your accuracy and performance. Repeating to yourself what you need to find or accomplish helps spark your memory and speeds up the rate at which your brain works in helping to accomplish the task. Talking to yourself also helps improve your self-control, reduces impulsive behavior and even helps improve your decision making.
It Helps You Organize Your Thoughts
When you’re confused or when it seems like your thoughts are running rampant through your mind, talking to yourself help you organize these wild and confusing thoughts. Conversing with yourself, especially when there’s no one around to really talk to, help you get a grip and clarify your thoughts enough to tend to what’s important and make decisions on whatever you’re contemplating.
It Helps To Improve Focus and Behaviour
Talking yourself through tasks helps improve your focus and helps you to better adjust your behavior to suit the work at hand. Verbally announcing each step of a task to yourself can actually help you perform much better at it because of improved focus, and it also makes it easier for you to set goals for yourself. So, next time you need to carry out a tasking, tricky or confusing project, try giving yourself verbal directions (in other words, try talking yourself through it). You’ll notice that your spoken statements actually help you determine what your next move should be, and what behavior you will need to complete the project.
It Helps You Feel Less Anxious
Giving yourself a quick talk out loud when you need to calm your nerves helps relax you, makes you less anxious and actually increases your chances of performing better. Talking or conversing with yourself before a stressful event can help you relax. Using second person phrases or pronouns during your ‘self-talk’ does a lot in helping you build confidence; this is because talking to yourself with second person pronouns helps create a psychological distance from the event, which allows you manage your nervous and anxious emotions much better.
It Can Improve Your Success Rate
Encouraging yourself out loud increases your chances of succeeding. Speaking positive and encouraging words to yourself especially when working to complete a task or achieve a goal, increases your chances of overall success in the task. Of course, this does not take the place of actual knowledge, hard work and effort, but it does make your odds of success a tad better. In addition, encouraging yourself is not enough; you have to take note of the pronouns you use to encourage yourself.
Studies show that encouraging yourself with second person pronouns actually has greater benefit than first-person pronouns. Second person pronouns reminds you of not only of yourselves but of those who believed or believe in you, and this in turn gives you an ego boost as well motivates you and grows your confidence to keep pushing.