The Science behind the Inner Voice

The most powerful words in the universe are the words you say to yourself Marie Forleo

So tell yourself things that will not only help you grow but will help those around you grow too. Sounds familiar? But it’s probably the most difficult thing any of us will ever do – being kind to ourselves and talking nicely to ourselves. The other day my friends and I, we were discussing how we were finding it difficult to stay up to date on our deadlines and really enjoy learning. The main reason for this was not external pressure or even the workload. Rather it came from within us. The voice inside always nagging us, telling us how this isn’t good enough and how unworthy we are.

After this deep conversation it struck me that for the past 5-6 years I’ve been reading up and learning so much about self-worth and self-healing. It also means that I have come across ways of dealing with our “inner voice/intuition” whatever you want to call it. And I wanted to pen down all of this information in a more simpler and easy to use language. So I researched about the psychology behind it and learnt from the life stories of over 10 successful people, people who have carved out a path for themselves.

But before I tell you about what I learned from the life and work of the successful people. Let me take you through the psychology of our inner voice and why it is the way it is.

Our inner voice isn’t really a voice at all, in the physical sense. It doesn’t have a volume but its pitch and tone can be modified. Which means that it only exists in the emotional plane and not the physical plane. The easiest way to understand this difference is through the tik tok trend. Where pet parents praise their pets in an angry, agitated voice and yell at them in a soft, reassuring voice. The pets are scared and upset in the first case and the second they are more relaxed and calm. This is because animals do not comprehend language like we do, they use emotional cues and cues from the pitch and tone (essentially) the emotion behind it, to comprehend what we are trying to say to them. How does this have anything to do with inner voice and internal pressure?

Just like in the case of dogs, our inner voice activates different neural centres in our brain when compared to another person talking to us. The external voices activate the auditory/hearing centers whereas the inner voice activates the same centres responsible for auditory hallucinations and for generation and response of mental imagery. What’s more interesting is that there are two different roles your inner voice can take on

1. Inner monologue/monologic inner speech

A monologue typically involves only one speaker and usually doesn’t involve the use of dialogue. This activates centres responsible for mental imagery..

2. Inner dialogue/dialogic inner speech

A dialogue typically involves two people in conversation. Most people tend to use inner dialogue to think/read/comprehend pieces of information in their mind. Dialogues actually activate auditory cortex the part that identifies and differentiates voices. This is why when we read this – Rachel: “Noooo”; we can hear it in Jennifer Aniston’s voice. (If you know you know). You read in the voice of the character.

What’s surprising is that not everyone has an inner monologue. The type of inner speech is dominant to you and whether or not we have an innermonologue,is determined by the type of thinker you are. According to Temple Grandlin, there are three types of thinkers:

1. Verbal thinkers – those who think in words and whole sentences

2. Pattern thinkers – those who think using patterns and connection and the process feels like you are using actions and emotions to think

3. Visual thinkers – those who think with the help of highly specific pictures and images

Every one has one dominant thinking type but usually use all three are present. However the absence of the inner monologue is more common in most autistic individuals.

The reason why understanding the psychology and science behind this is because the way we talk to ourselves is what affects our sense of self-worth and what defines our internal pressure barometer. And understanding the science can be reassuring, cause its just the way things work. But just because our brains are a certain way right now doesn’t mean that they cannot be changed. Our brains are extremely fluid which means we CAN change our neural networks and trick our brain and inner voice into being our strongest allies. And how do you do that? Follow the blog for part 2 of this post.

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