Chatter – quell your negative self talk

Introspection is actively paying attention to one’s own thoughts and feelings.  This is an evolutionary advance that distinguish humans from other species.  Chatter is the constant verbal stream of negative thoughts and emotions we direct toward ourselves, and dwell on and ruminate over, and over, and over.

The solution is to zoom out and gain perspective. Chatter, by Ethan Kross helps us redirect our inner voices, including self-distancing, shifting one’s perspectives and giving in to the awe we find in nature and art. I recommend this book as it does a wonderful job explaining how chatter affects our brains and strategies we can use to quiet our relentless monologue.

Ethan Kross

How was 2020 for you? As we are living and working in new ways we tend to have negative chatter that can spin out of control. As Kross who studies the science of introspection at the Emotion and Self Control Laboratory, a lab he founded and directs at the University of Michigan says, “We all have an inner voice. It is one of the things that makes us human. Through good and bad, our inner voice has allowed us to not just survive as a species but thrive. That we have an inner voice is not a problem. Neither is the fact that we have negative thoughts. It’s the seemingly uncontrollable negative chatter our inner voice can sometimes produce that’s the problem.” Our inner voice may be a biological need, but the excessive negative chatter it often produces can be harmful to our mental, emotional and physical health. And it is not just us it impacts negatively: more often than not, we sabotage others, including friends, and family, by reinforcing their own chatter.

Kross speaks in layman’s terms and explains simply and concisely why we have an inner voice and what happens when that voice is hijacked by chatter. Next, he gives us tools we can use to manage it. We don’t want to eradicate our inner voice; we just want to have a better relationship with it.