Talk to yourself

Opinions vary about the origin of language. Many linguists estimate the beginning of language at between 50 and 150 thousand years ago. Others believe it could have been developed much farther back in our ancestry. 

Regardless, one of the aspects of language usage that is often overlooked is that almost all of the words we use everyday are never verbalized. No matter how much we like to talk and communicate with others, the vast majority of what we say is said to ourselves.

Some conclusions that we might draw from this include: our understanding of the world around us is often defined by our own experience and how we explain it to ourselves; our understanding of ourselves is largely based on what we say to ourselves; we probably need to pay a whole lot more attention to what we tell ourselves everyday; life wouldn't be quite so interesting and fulfilling if we couldn't describe it to ourselves; most of what we say to ourselves is not spoken to others; self-talk is most likely the biggest influencer in our lives; to be truly successful in talking with others we definitely need to be aware of what we tell ourselves; while communication between people remains a critical part of our civilization, our internal dialog determines many of the components of our well-being, i.e. our self-image, happiness, relationship development, trust, curiosity, etc. 

Meditation is one technique often used to clear the mind of all the chatter. Affirmations are also useful to insure we are having positive/productive conversations with ourselves. 

Language allows us to understand who we are, what we want and what we believe. It allows us to communicate these things with others, but more importantly, with ourselves.

See how long you can go without saying a single word to yourself. Want to try again?