By: Gabe Rummel
Last Modified: June 20th, 2022
Introduction
Internal dialogue is a very important concept that very few even know about.
If you are someone who ever hears a little voice inside of your head talking to you, and it is sometimes negative, then it may be beneficial for you to learn about internal dialogue.
In this post, we will recognize what internal dialogue is, why it is important and how to recognize it. We will also give a few real-world examples of it at play and some tips and reminders to use it.
What is Internal Dialogue?
Internal dialogue is the little voice in your head that talks to you and how you respond to it. It is often the little voice trying to talk you out of whatever you are doing to take the simpler action.
We will refer to it as the little voice in your head because that is what it is. You may not even realize it, but that little voice often says things to you, getting you to stop doing something because it is hard, boring, or you simply do not want to do it.
Your goal should be to learn how to respond to the little voice and control it. Once we emphasize these two points, your perspective on achieving goals in your life should change.
Why is Internal Dialogue Important?
Internal dialogue is important because it often represents how you view tasks and complete them.
If you are doing a task, but the little voice is telling you that it is terrible, not fun and that you could be doing a million other things, it is holding you back. While those things may be true, the little voice in your head almost always tries to make you take the easiest path in life, which is often one of the least progressive paths.
Internal dialogue is then how you respond to the little voice. It tells you this and that all day, and you are probably listening to it and thinking about how to respond. Or else you have not even thought about it to that extent and are now thinking back to many times when you have caught this voice having you do something that was not your intention, and it was also the easier option.
Converting thoughts to plan now, we can discuss why internal dialogue is important. If you have more of an understanding and can recognize when you are having yourself take the less productive, easier way out, there will be better ways to handle it.
How to Recognize internal Dialogue and Use It To Your Advantage
Now that we know that internal dialogue exists and what it might do, it is time to be able to recognize it and change the narrative to use it to your advantage.
Most of the time in our lives, we live through choices. Often it is a simple binomial choice of, “do I do this, or do I not do this?” Depending on the topic, what has happened during the day, and what you have planned for the future will decide how you answer your question.
I often ask myself, “will this benefit me and my future? Or is this an instant gratification scenario where I will be upset with myself later?” Some reasons that it may make me upset would be because I then would not be able to get my objectives done that I had planned for the near future, I will not be able to complete the tasks I had planned during this block of time, etc.
When you ask yourself those questions, the inner voice will try to talk to you even more. It would probably say something along the lines of, “Well, this won’t affect you too much,” or, “We should have enough time to still get those tasks done later,” or any other sort.
You can use this to your advantage because if the inner voice is telling you these things, you then know it is probably not the event to do. Instead, you can consistently do the opposite, and the delayed gratification (another future blog post) will be of a much greater reward.
So instead of listening to the voice, try doing the opposite. Of course, sometimes this voice is being nice and is a good voice in which you should listen, in which you will feel great after participating. But often, we find a way to talk ourselves into thinking that the voice is okay when it is not the best option. Here we can look at some real-world examples of such.
Three Real Examples of Internal Dialogue And The Options To Take
Physical:
You decided to tackle a hard workout today because you felt like you had not done much the past couple of days. About halfway through your workout, it starts to get very hard, and you do not know if you can continue.
A voice in your head tells you how much easier it would be if you just stopped now, how you would feel better right now, and all of the pain will go away.
But once you start to notice, there is another little voice telling you that it will feel even better if you finish, and when you do, you will be even happier with yourself. It says if you do not finish, you will become upset, which you know is true.
Here lies the decision point where you can continue or give in to the little voice telling you to stop. Hopefully, you can understand this and utilize it to your advantage to continue your workout.
Social:
You have a presentation to do for work, school, whatever the case. However, this will be a bigger audience than you are used to.
The first voice that comes to mind says that this will be a terrible event, one that there is no way you will do good on because you are not good in front of this many people, and the information is not that exciting.
It is a rather snowball effect that seems like there is no end in sight and nowhere to get better.
Then, after understanding the concept of internal dialogue, you can realize that this will be an opportunity to grow by trying a presentation in front of many more people, and it will be an opportunity for you to work on presenting information in the best way possible to make it more exciting.
Nutrition:
A common issue related to food is the dilemma of hearing a little voice in your head about a problem of eating more of this sweet or that you really need to not eat any of this product.
It can once again snowball and say just how terrible of a job you have been doing and be a very negative influence. This snowball effect is one form of internal dialogue you can relate to. You need to eat the cookies because you have put them off all week and not eating them, waiting for the one day to binge.
Instead, throughout the week, have a different form of internal dialogue. Know you are a primitive mammal and are craving the sugar because your body and brain are wired to in order to survive.
Instead of having a negative internal dialogue, respect that you can eat whatever you want as long as it is in moderation. Have the internal dialogue that one piece will very well be okay and that you will not need to eat another; if you do, remind yourself that you already did and are satisfied.
Three Tips and Reminders for Internal Dialogue
Reflect Often
Reflecting more often is important to track progress and start seeing if you are actually listening to yourself. The more you reflect on your day, behaviors, activities, etc., the more you will be able to notice the internal dialogue.
Understand It Will Take Time
As with everything anyone has ever done, when you first try and attempt something, it is noticeably harder than something you have been doing for a while. When you first attempt to notice and change your internal dialogue, it may be hard and frustrating.
Sticking with it will allow you to notice it more and start to find what works for you and how to handle situations that you previously may not have even noticed.
Vocalize
When you physically vocalize the internal dialogue or voices in your head, you may get more of a sense of how to handle it and notice it more. By doing this, you are drawing attention to what you are thinking and how you are thinking it.
You do not have to talk to yourself about this either. Vocalize your thoughts to a friend or someone you can talk to about things you are thinking. In doing this, you can draw more attention to what thoughts you like and which thoughts you do not like.
Closing
Overall, I hope we now have a better understanding of what internal dialogue is and why it is important to recognize in our daily life.
It is a very important concept to use in regards to some of the other tools we have talked about using, such as taking events one step at a time, goal setting, and viewing events in a positive way vs. negative.
Recognizing and identifying internal dialogue will be important to change your perspective on tasks that may not generally be as fun and allow you to make each day the best it can be!
Call-to-Action
Start to recognize, and turn your internal dialogue to move forward vs. bringing yourself back. Share the information and post if you like this or know of people who will aid!
If you want more support from The Athletes Health, reach out and fill out one of our forms on the Website!
The Athletes Health - All things health for all people.
