![]() ![]() A contemporary State of the Union address is about 6,000 words and can last over an hour. One study estimated that people can think to themselves at a rate that is equivalent to speaking 4,000 words per-minute out loud. Inner speech can take a compressed form, which allows our words to flow at a rapid pace. And engaging in nonverbal reasoning, or talking to ourselves silently, is a significant portion of that. We spend between a third and a half of our waking hours not focused on the present. We can learn things from painful experiences that help us grow and improve. Even if our self-talk is negative, that doesn’t always mean it’s bad. Self-talk helps us to author the stories of our life, to capture stories that explain what we have gone through. When we are doing something difficult we mentally walk ourselves through the steps we need to take. We talk to ourselves when we’re trying to control ourselves or when we are trying to solve a problem. We try to simulate what we are planning to say, like when we go on an interview or a date. ![]() We use it to keep things fresh in our heads, like repeating a phone number. ![]() There are lots of ways we use language internally. Here are edited excerpts from my conversation with Dr. ![]()
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