Give Your Inner Voice a Mic
Have you ever talked to yourself out loud? Despite the many benefits, only about 25% of adults admit to doing it, and that's probably because most people find it "odd." But your inner voice deserves a mic; after all, aside from aiding learning, memory, and emotional regulation, speaking your thoughts aloud boosts your overall happiness. Still skeptical? Here are 20 benefits of external self-talk—and why you should make it a habit if you haven't already.
1. Keeps & Improves Focus
Talking out loud improves your focus on the task at hand. Whether you're assembling furniture or cooking a new recipe, reciting your actions helps move you forward with each step, ensuring you're doing exactly what you intended.
2. Helps You Better Process Emotions
Talking to yourself allows you to better process and manage your emotions by giving you a more thorough understanding of why you feel the way you do and how you can resolve it. Over time, this builds emotional intelligence. Conversely, leaving your feelings to brew internally may lead to you suppressing them, and you'll be more likely to lash out or blame others.
3. Enhances Learning
Reciting new material out loud can help lock it into your brain and memory. Research has consistently found that those who explain concepts aloud to themselves are much more likely—three times more likely, in fact—to learn better than those who don't. This phenomenon, dubbed the "production effect," is due to the dual action of speaking out loud and hearing yourself say the words.
4. Enhances Performance
If talking out loud helps with learning, it should come as no surprise that it can enhance performance as well. This is because speaking aloud each step or action not only helps to instruct you but motivate you. The result? You're less likely to make mistakes, and even if you do, you can encourage and talk yourself through it.
5. Encourages Honesty
Voicing your thoughts out loud lets you be vulnerable. You don't need to worry about others listening in or silently judging; it's just you, your voice, and your brain. You can be honest with yourself, and talking aloud can help you sort through any worries or vulnerabilities, and plan out the next best course of action.
6. Reduces Stress
Remember how we said that talking to yourself out loud allows you to better process and manage your emotions? In the same line of thought, doing so can reduce stress. During periods of high workload, voicing each task aloud may also help break them down into easier, more manageable chunks.
7. Builds Confidence
Have an important interview or presentation coming up? Or maybe you struggle with social anxiety, or need to tackle a particularly difficult conversation? Rehearsing your speech and answers out loud helps build confidence, so that you're more prepared when the time comes and can articulate your thoughts clearly.
8. Supports Language Development
If you're learning a new language, practicing conversations or vocabulary out loud to yourself strengthens your knowledge and understanding. This will allow you to feel more adept and confident in real-life situations when you need to put those skills to use.
9. Helps Monitor Your Internal Dialogue
What does that voice in your head sound like? Is it kind and understanding, constantly motivating and pushing you forward? Or is it overly critical and demeaning, not allowing any room for errors? Speaking out loud helps you monitor your internal dialogue and can stop you in your tracks if you're entertaining too much negative self-talk.
10. Boosts Memory
Along with enhancing our learning, voicing things out loud boosts memory. Again, this is due to the action of speaking and hearing yourself say it, as this is a more active and involved process than simply skimming through text.
11. Act as a Grounding Voice
In times of panic and anxiety, your voice can act as an anchor that keeps you from spiraling. You can talk yourself through the way you feel and guide yourself out of your state of unease. Even just reciting calming phrases out loud, like "I'm okay" and "This will pass," helps.
12. Strengthens Decision-Making
Sure, you can make decisions without voicing your thoughts out loud, but by doing it you can verbally organize your thoughts and opinions. This helps you better note down specific pros and cons, and ultimately come to a conclusion.
13. Helps You Feel Less Alone
Let's face it—sometimes, we talk to ourselves out of loneliness. Maybe you're home alone and can't stand the silence, or you need to vent but don't want to burden your friends. No matter the reason, self-talk provides a sense of company when we need it most.
14. Motivates Action
Giving yourself mini pep talks, especially ones spoken aloud, can energize you to start or continue your tasks. Whether you're dreading going to the gym or procrastinating on finishing an assignment, motivating yourself out loud makes you your own personal coach.
15. Verbalizing Plans Aids in Visualization
To take it a step further so you actually do the tasks you planned on doing (instead of falling victim to procrastination again), verbalizing your to-do list or plans helps you better visualize what needs to be done and what should be prioritized. It's especially effective when you're trying to tackle a busy day.
16. Promotes Self-Distancing
You most likely talk aloud to yourself by using the pronoun I. "I think it should be like this"; "I don't think I'm doing this right"; "I wonder why I'm feeling this way." But psychologists and researchers believe that it's actually more beneficial to speak to yourself in the third person, either by using your name or the pronoun you. This type of distanced self-talk, studies reveal, allows for better mental clarity, emotional regulation, and self-control.
17. May Help Break Habits
Voicing your actions out loud could also help you break bad habits. For example, when your attention drifts from the task at hand, you might tell yourself, "I'm procrastinating again. I need to get back to work." Or if you often snack even when you're not hungry, you might say, "I don't need this right now. I should save it for when I'm actually hungry."
18. Clarifies Your Thoughts
Talking out loud lets you understand your thoughts better. It helps you verbalize your mental process so that you can better structure your ideas and words. This is especially helpful for brainstorming, problem-solving, or emotional management.
19. Encourages Self-Compassion
Not only does talking out loud motivate action, it also encourages self-compassion—provided you don't fall into the trap of negative self-talk. The key is to speak to yourself gently, as you would with a friend, so that you can offer strong words of encouragement in times of failure or stress.
20. It's Fun
Why talk to yourself? Because it's fun and an easy way to entertain yourself! Seriously, if you've never tried it before because you thought it was "weird," you're missing out. You can pretend like you're on a podcast, narrating your own chaotic life, or like an artist accepting an award on the big stage. The possibilities are endless—and we guarantee a little self-talk will instantly boost your mood.
