"If the inner voice is me, who is it talking to?"
Think about Christopher Lochhead's question to Dr. Ethan Kross, a psychologist and professor at the University of Michigan and the Ross School of Business.
Yes, it's uniquely human that we use language silently in our head, explains Dr. Kross. This is our inner voice. We can tell stories and explain who we are.
What happens when this voice doesn't work well?
We sometimes don't come up with obvious answers and go spinning: this is chatter. It's a challenge when chatter comes as a(n):
inner critic
self-disparaging voice
angry voice
We spend at least 1/3 of our waking time in our head.
So it's easy to believe you're your thoughts. And that you can't control them. But is it true?
Turns out, you can't control the random thoughts that pop up, but you can control whether you engage with them.
Here are some tools you can use to manage your inner voice:
coach yourself (catch the chatter is on)
talk to people (so you can reframe what you go through)
go to nature (you feel something is bigger than you, so the chatter gets smaller)
Listen to this fascinating conversation in Christopher Lochhead's Follow Your Different podcast episode with Dr. Kross: