I do. I talk to myself all day. Mainly because I am by myself all day. I think talking to yourself is perfectly healthy. Here are some of the things I say to myself “OK”, “Right”, “That’s not heavy”, “Are you crazy?”. “Coffee time.” “What the hell is he doing?” “DRINK!” (did you ever watch Father Ted).
96% of people have an inner dialogue. Do you think in words? That is an inner dialogue.
25% admit to talking out loud but I think that the others lie! Afraid that being caught talking to themselves might be an indication of mental illness. Well, it’s not. It is NOT an indication of mental illness. I think more of us talk out loud to ourselves more often than we will admit too.
And we probably answer ourselves too – in the comfort of our own homes, thank you very much.
It’s a good thing and honestly if I did not talk to myself during the day I would not talk at all. With my husband working off the farm, I solo farm most of the time, write alone with dogs, and have chosen to give up my paid job and start my own business (more writing alone). So until The Sustainable Home launches (with its workshops and Zoom calls and communication) it is just me talking to me.
The sound of your own voice galvanizes a person. I do believe that.
How many of you pretend you are talking to your dog?
“Where did I leave my phone BooBoo?”
Or your pig.
“Its a quiet day today, Wai, lets go find Tima.”
“Talking out loud to yourself can motivate you to move forward with your goals, help you focus on a task at hand, and combat self-criticism. Gary Lupyan from University of Wisconsin-Madison calls this phenomenon “feedback hypothesis.” – quoting Aunty Google.
Thank you Aunty!
The Farmyard
Our new calves are weaned at my friends and ready to come to the farm. We pick them up on Sunday. They are bottle babies so will be stupid tame.
Plus I have another contact for feeder piglets. They are hard to find nowadays. The little breeders like me gave up during the pandemic period when all the little slaughter houses were taken over by the big slaughter houses that were closed down due to people getting sick. This broke something in our local food system.
And if organic field grown meat is the protein of your choice and you are being particular about how it is grown, it should be getting harder to find. If it is harder to find then you are doing something right. However we can eat less meat and more plants. (I don’t eat fish – unless I can see the sea, I worry too much about the sea to support the big fisheries. Personally I think all deep sea fishing should be banned for twenty years). And no – I do not accept substitutes, I am not going to eat a science project masquerading as meat. Or a turkey made of soy. Meat or no meat. Fine with me.
You know, it just occurred to me that blogging is a form of talking to yourself which is why I love our Lounge of Comments. Then I get to talk to you!
SubStack
Here is the link to the story I wrote for yesterday’s publication (Monday) and I have decided that for the Thursday Subscribers ($5 a month gets you a Thursday Feature) – I am going to trial reading the story aloud. Does that sound crazy? Do you think people will want to hear me read the story? (I will be reading to myself! Is that the same as talking to myself – if I read to myself so that you can hear me read?)
Substack has a podcast feature so I am going to give it a go. (I need to terrify myself at least once a day).
Chapter Two – Looking Down from the Clouds
(I really need to work on headings!). Anyway – The Kitchens Garden Blog is still my Mother Ship – and you are all on it. We are good. Everything begins right here.
Which is why you get all the offers! And all the pictures.
The Kitchens Garden
We had a little rain in the night. Which means good digging and weeding today. Mostly digging – as I turn over the beds for planting in a few weeks. No sign of any of my garden seeds popping up yet. Maybe soon.
Until then my main vegetable is the silverbeet that continues to grow in the glasshouse beds.
And the greens in the big pots that are getting rather tired of pot life and going to seed. But thats OK. I gather and resow the seed.
Weather at 6.30 am
Still freezing in the night-time. Sigh.
Two great grey geese just honked above the house, circled and flew down to the ditch, I hope they land in front of my field camera!! What are the odds do you think?
Have a lovely day!
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
56 responses to “Do you talk to yourself?”
You are so much further ahead of us Spring-wise! It’s lovely to see. We are still in the very beginning of greening up. Last night we had a lovely rain, but today it is spitting snow.
Spitting snow! IT just feels to me that your winter is longer than ever this year!
It is. It’s long and cold. Terry is very concerned the soil isn’t going to warm up enough to plant the corn. Sigh
I understand that concern. It must warm up soon.
As soon as l read the word “drink” l knew exactly what you were going to say next! And yes l talk to myself, including “drink” when l realise l haven’t had a cuppa for ages. I don’t eat any meat, though l do eat a little fish. No artificial meat substitutes! Ugh!
Piglets and calves to look forward to, wonderful. Stunning farm photos as ever.
Thank you Andrea! I only eat meat that I grow or know where it comes from which really cuts down my options. I am a vege when I am travelling!
Hah! Of course I do! and I also talk to the birds, the squirrels and our cat Lucy! OH! and I also talk to my sweetie pie! Hugs!
Morning Lucy!!
Lucy says “Thanks meowy much!”
I sure do
Good!
Of course, I talk to myself! I also talk to my dogs and they try to look like they understand me. We all need to talk to someone and why not ourselves?
We are often the only ones that will understand anyway! I love it when a dog cocks it head to the side – wondering what we want with all our chatter.
I call my talking to myself my motivator, cheerleader, etc. It helps me breathe. It helps me move forward, especially when I want to give up. It helps me work through things. It helps me in so many ways. I have a spouse and I have co-workers, however; a good majority of the time is spent in the virtual world. I LOVE when I can just go for a walk with the mister and just talk about life and what is happening – nothing better! I am very much a people person living in a virtual world at times – ha! Happy Day – Enjoy 🙂
A people person in a virtual word and doing well! It sounds to me like your talks to yourself are working out fine!
Always. Talk and answer!
“Now where is the flour? … Over there!” … I can just see you talking to yourself in your kitchen! Morning Dorothy!
Often my answers to myself are in the form of cussing. “You silly idiot, how did you forget to put the salt in?”
Oh that one!!! Yes I get that too!
Yes and quite often in Spanish (occasionally French). I even dream in Spanish sometimes!
Wow – you are multi lingual. Can you remember when you first dreamt in Spanish?
I think I’d been living Barcelona for a couple of weeks back in 1991 – I was so desperate to learn the language. At the time I probably dreamt that I was speaking Spanish, wheras later on I’d wake up and remember what I was saying in Spanish.
Wheels within wheels.
When you practice words, phrases and conversations in your head, on the way to the market, shops, bars or friends, they stay with you, like learning multiplication tables.
BTW the handsom drake with a wobbly leg has been back twice today.
That sounds like a good idea! Then you have witty repartee! The story of the ducks resumes – I am glad!
I love the ducks!
I so relate to talking to myself! And my dog. Sometimes I apologize to my own feet when I step on them!
Your peacock reminds me of a funny story. Decades ago we bought a farm in central PA and I got my husband two peacocks for Christmas. In April, I heard him talking to a local newspaper reporter on the phone. “We have over 300 birds.” He did. We had everything from quail to rheas, white peacocks, golden pheasants, turkeys, chickens of every type, ducks of every description. I had no idea there were that many though! Your farm reminds me more of my grandmother’s than the one we had but all of it brings back wonderful memories! Love the way you spin a story and your sense of humor!
Fancy buying peacocks for Christmas!! What an amazing gift – 300 birds is a lot – I would have more in an instant but my husband barely tolerates what I have now. I would love to sneak in a mate for Mr Flowers though – c
Place me in with the YES group of talkers and answerers! What else can you do when you live alone. I have regular conversations with the birds at my feeders and the squirrels and rabbits. They seem to enjoy it as much as I do 😉
I am not really a meat eater, although on rare occasions I crave a good hamburger-homemade not fast food. I like fish. I grew up on salmon living in the PNW but the stuff I trust is too expensive.
Love the idea of a podcast. As I know your voice already I think hearing your personal stories would bring them to life even more than simply reading the words.
I very carefully recorded myself this morning but the file is too big to upload! I think I am going to have to record straight into their system which is not ideal. But it came out alright. Not a squeaky voice at all!! I used my wee mic. Hopefully I can use it (mic) on the laptop too – we shall see – managing new tech is just doing stuff bit by bit! I will record again this afternoon.
Oh yes, myself and I have long interesting conversations. We are both really great conversationalists.
Ha ha!! That was a great comeback , Victoria!!
Yep. Talk to myself for sure. Mostly it’s a healthy dialogue! (Or monologue?!)
I’m reading along and we are right in sync as you pull out the “talking to the dog” or my pig or my reflection or cursed jar lid. I spend a lot of time conversing in my head, that’s probably why I like long road trips. I think lots of good thoughts and, yes, I think blogging was a way for me to converse with others as I adjusted to being on my own. It’s so enjoyable to hang out at the farm and see the plans for spring. Thanks for sharing Celi.
Oh long road trips! Yes. I love that too. You can live a whole life in your head on a good road trip!
Absolutely I talk out loud to myself plus inner dialogue too. I figure as long as I don’t have a big out loud argument with myself then it is all ok. I always tell myself my truths too – even truths I never have voiced to anyone else. Some of those truths are inner dialogue not yet ready to have a voice.
Those inner truths – sometimes they should stay unspoken – do you think?
Yes I agree. That is the benefit of talking to oneself. Private time in my brain!
…the cat speaks up: “Meeeooww!” Busy, I turn to stare at him…please speak speak English today. He refuses. I move on… ❤
oops, only one speak
Lovely!!! That Cat!