Talking to Myself Again — No, I'm Not Crazy!

I have been talking to myself (especially while doing things) since I was a little kid.

I used to think it was some sort of insanity, but my Auntie — when I was about 14, as I recall — assured me that all intelligent beings talk to themselves. I've never forgotten that!

I suppose what I am really doing is processing thoughts outward, rather than keeping them inside my head. I just find that thinking things through in silence is far less conducive to working them out and getting new ideas, than actually having an audible conversation with myself. Thinking inside my head feels like watching a YouTube video with "mute" feature on. So I talk to myself.

The kicker is that I typically have my best ideas for articles and other writing when I am far from the computer. Or even a pen and notebook.

The odd paradox is that when I am sitting in my office, trying to work, I don't so often talk to myself nor feel inclined to do so. On the other hand, when I am mowing the lawn, or going for a walk, or cooking, or folding laundry, I usually have a lot to say.

A while back — as a somewhat bold new experiment — I hooked up my laptop in the kitchen while I cooked... so I could basically write as I talked things through, in the three-minute pauses between flipping pork chops or whatever else was going on.

Now, I'm well aware of the risks of grease on the screen and flour in the keyboard, but these are occupational hazards I'm willing to face... and this was — as I said — just an experiment.

It didn't work terribly well... until I turned on the "voice-to-text" feature and simply "dictated" my flow of ideas at the computer.

That was better!

Or was it?

After considering that my dictated pages of "things to write about" were basically a list of gripes about things I have to deal with in life... I got to thinking... why do we spend so much time focusing on the negative, while generally glossing over the positive?

I mean, negativity and complaining runs the range of human experience, from the personal to the global.

"War sells newspapers, peace does not."

It's a bit sad to think about. We are so drawn to disasters and trainwrecks, but we take the good things that happen more or less for granted... and they go by, unobserved.

So, I thought about what irritates me... and the why of things that irritate me. That turned out to be an interesting exercise in observation and self-inquiry.

Typically, I get annoyed by situations where other people's lack of awareness and consciousness of their surroundings results in taking up my time, and/or requires my effort. I realized how this is often a big "trigger" for me, as far as getting annoyed and moody... especially when bad or no planning on someone else's behalf is the catalyst for my own time/effort output.

"They" say, of course, that the things that irritate us about other people are the things about ourselves that we really do not like. Indeed, I tend to be hypersensitive to/about wasting other people's time... and tend to overplan almost everything I do, lest my activity could somehow cause another to waste their time.

Meanwhile, I continue to talk to myself, quite often. Mostly in the car, though... perhaps because I can get away with it... because anyone observing will just think I am on the phone, on a hands-free set.

Because I'm NOT crazy!

Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy the rest of your week!

How about you? Do you ever talk to yourself? Do you let other people see you? Do you worry it's a little bit crazy? Leave a comment if you feel so inclined — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

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Created at 2024.09.13 00:58PDT
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