Talking to Ourselves (to Voxalate or Not?)

Many jokes abound about talking to ourselves.  The tendency has been associated with mental aberrations and indulging in the habit may cause fear that we’re loosing touch with reality.

“As long as you don’t get an answer,” is a favorite retort. But when we don’t want to bother other people with our jabber, why not talk to ourselves? In fact, there may be some benefit to the practice: researchers have actually found that hearing our thoughts can help us locate a missing object.

  

The behavior could also indicate a kind of awareness, rather than an obliviousness of our own actions. Dividing ourselves into an experiencer and an observer may give us a more accurate picture of ourselves, thereby achieving a goal of psychotherapy: to teach a patient to become his own therapist by observing his thoughts and actions.

I propose to invent a new verb - voxalate- to mean the positive, reassuring and helpful phenomenon of talking to oneself out loud.

  

Conclusion:  Talking to oneself can boost the memory and help us become more self-aware. 

Dear Reader, Please add your opinions and experiences. Jsimon145@gmail.com