One of my favorite quotes is from Susan Scott’s Fierce Conversations, “All conversations are with myself. Sometimes they include other people.”
Have you noticed your internal conversation? I find it particularly loud when I’m in a quiet spot. Or when I’m alone in a big crowd.
” Who is that woman over there?”
“Boy, is that a loud laugh.”
“Why did you say that to her?”
“Why does he look so angry?”
“If John doesn’t stop putting Tom down in front of the boss, he’s going to get fired!”
We have a thousand comments a second. If you pay attention to them, you will see all your emotions, judgments and fears coming out in a constant stream. It’s amazing we hear anyone else speaking out loud.
If you find you are talking to yourself in a tone you would never use on another human being, I give you permission to stop it right now. Say, thank you to that voice for sharing and change the topic. “College football has had so many turns and twists this year, did you watch any games this week?”
My next post will talk about patterns in the internal conversation.