thoughts
You might have noticed that strange things are going on in my blog. There's a post title where it shouldn't be, and everything of actual interest (ie. the side bar) is at the very bottom of the page. I don't quite know how it happened - a problem with the html, obviously, and since I'm not flash at reading html (ha! get the pun..) this blog will look kind of weird for a while. Probably until big brother comes back from the U.S. and fixes it up for me. Love you much, big brother.
That said, I'll get on to the real stuff..
...
I've been thinking, recently. It's a habit I'm picking up from somewhere - possibly Uni.
.. About the fact that we talk to ourselves. We all talk to other people a fair amount during the course of the day: share a word or two when we bump into a friend (for me, literally) somewhere, or drink tea with our families, or go out for a coffee with someone. It comes naturally.
But all of the time we're talking to ourselves as well. We create commentaries on events that are happening, on the state of our lives, on what we think of other people; we sift through ideas in our brain, deciding with ourselves what is true and what is false. Sometimes we even argue with ourselves - like an internal version of this picture..
Gotta love Dr. Suess..
This doesn't stop when we're talking to other people either. Perhaps, for the brief time that we're actually talking, we're not talking to ourselves much - it's hard for our brains to multi-task on two similar jobs. But we're incessantly thinking about what we're going to say next, or we'll notice to ourselves things about the other person - be reading their expressions to decide what to say.
The way we talk to ourselves is fascinating as well. It's like talking to a really, really, close friend who knows you extremely well. This friend gives us feedback - they know the best times to pity us, encourage us or boost our self-esteem. They usually know just the right times to make us feel more cheerful, yet can also give us insights into our own character and motives - sometimes alarmingly.
I'm not saying that this person is someone other than ourselves of course. I just find it really strange that we can talk to ourselves at all. It seems odd that your mind has all these different voices - who all sound like you, yet tell you different things: persuade, encourage, pity you or debate with you. How can we debate or talk with ourselves?
It would seem to indicate that we have several people residing within ourselves. I don't like entertaining that thought too long though, it's disturbing. Besides, it's not true.
Despite the bizarreness of it, it's an incredibly useful thing to have, this self-talking. Thinking, I believe it's called.
How much would we get done, or how would we ever know what to think about something if we didn't have different voices telling us different ways to think about things in order to weigh up evidence? How would we know what we believe unless different voices could persuade and convince us to believe certain things?
- Lydie
That said, I'll get on to the real stuff..
...
I've been thinking, recently. It's a habit I'm picking up from somewhere - possibly Uni.
.. About the fact that we talk to ourselves. We all talk to other people a fair amount during the course of the day: share a word or two when we bump into a friend (for me, literally) somewhere, or drink tea with our families, or go out for a coffee with someone. It comes naturally.
But all of the time we're talking to ourselves as well. We create commentaries on events that are happening, on the state of our lives, on what we think of other people; we sift through ideas in our brain, deciding with ourselves what is true and what is false. Sometimes we even argue with ourselves - like an internal version of this picture..
Gotta love Dr. Suess..This doesn't stop when we're talking to other people either. Perhaps, for the brief time that we're actually talking, we're not talking to ourselves much - it's hard for our brains to multi-task on two similar jobs. But we're incessantly thinking about what we're going to say next, or we'll notice to ourselves things about the other person - be reading their expressions to decide what to say.
The way we talk to ourselves is fascinating as well. It's like talking to a really, really, close friend who knows you extremely well. This friend gives us feedback - they know the best times to pity us, encourage us or boost our self-esteem. They usually know just the right times to make us feel more cheerful, yet can also give us insights into our own character and motives - sometimes alarmingly.
I'm not saying that this person is someone other than ourselves of course. I just find it really strange that we can talk to ourselves at all. It seems odd that your mind has all these different voices - who all sound like you, yet tell you different things: persuade, encourage, pity you or debate with you. How can we debate or talk with ourselves?
It would seem to indicate that we have several people residing within ourselves. I don't like entertaining that thought too long though, it's disturbing. Besides, it's not true.
Despite the bizarreness of it, it's an incredibly useful thing to have, this self-talking. Thinking, I believe it's called.
How much would we get done, or how would we ever know what to think about something if we didn't have different voices telling us different ways to think about things in order to weigh up evidence? How would we know what we believe unless different voices could persuade and convince us to believe certain things?
- Lydie
Labels: arguing, awesome, bizarre, incomprehension, self, weird
posted by Lydie at
11:46 pm
6 Comments:
Soliloquy... I love it.
I love internal dialogue. Is it ok that I habitually converse with myself aloud though? I think it's perfectly normal (helps organise random and scattered thoughts) but I've met a few people that think it's not! Oh well, I'm all for it - silently inside the head or out loud. I do both.
As a total aside, yes, I'm the Jo-Ann whose house you visited on the day it flooded our street. I was reminded of that today with all the rain and talk of flooding at low levels. Hopefully we'll be ok this time but that incident certainly made for a great memory!
Wow, this is long! Sorry.
Me too, Siminy! It can be so interesting.. do you think that it's because we're such social creatures that we *have* to be talking the whole time - silently or otherwise?
Jo-Ann: that's funny! I was thinking of you today as well! And also because of the rain :) I was thinking of how the street outside your house *completely* flooded - and hoped that you don't get flooded anymore! Mum told me today that this weeks' lot of rain is going to be the most we've had in two years..
Soliloquy? I do it, and I'm not entirely mad. Yet. It somehow seems to clear my mind better than when I'm just internally dialoguing. Maybe the cluttered, messed-up part of your brain listens to the organised part of your brain talking, and that helps you to work out what you think about things. Pure conjecture, of course..
I usually only do it when my brain's packed full of new ideas, and they have to have a let-out. What about you?
Not sure how I sparked this, but who cares...it's great! Love the Dr. Suess picture (is it Thing 1 & Thing 2, or am I wrong?), it pretty much sums up what goes on inside my head sometimes. Especially when I'm thinking! ;)
..haha, thanks! It was sort of a train of thought that came from something you said in your last comment.
Hmm. Aren't thing 1 & 2 from the Cat in the Hat? The little men who run around doing dastardly deeds while the children's mother is away.. perhaps.
The things that go on in our heads can be slightly guessed at on a blog, but the depths of it just *can't* be expounded. It's just all so mysterious..
No...I do it when the head's full of ideas or not. But I have several excuses, namely, it's a habit which doesn't bother me enough to break and I know for a fact it runs in the family. So I figure it's come down through the genes. I think I need to conclude that I am weird for talking to myself. But I'm ok with that!
p.s. It's awesome that you talk about rain in your next post. After I brought that up:)
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home