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?”
Even if no-one else is around there’s always a lot going on… inner dialogue, quiet commentary, some loud exclamations and swear words, conversation with the dog and visiting birds.
I bet there is!! – all those conversions going on. Good morning!
Yep, I talk to myself too. I talk to Brat (my cat) and as we’ve been together longer I find he’s meowing or making other noises back at me quite often. My dogs always did something like that too, a soft woof or grumble or other little noise, sometimes a wag of the tail. I had a couple squirrels and chipmunks that came for peanuts where I was staying in Chicago and I’d talk to them too, they seemed to like it and knew their names. One of the chipmunks and one of the squirrels would actually come when called. It was interesting seeing that they were inclined to interact. Zippy, one of the chipmunks, would climb up and sit on my knee while I handed her peanuts and she stuffed them in her cheeks. Brat will come sometimes and want a “conversation” and cuddles. I learned long ago that we underestimate the other little lives around us.
Those chipmunks sound pretty cool. Fancy one coming up on your knee!
And yes! They all add valuable conversations to our lives!
Well of course, sometimes I need ‘expert’ advice!
That’s really funny, Sherry! And true – of course!
Yes, I also talk to myself and I talk to my dog. We are very fine and normal!! Love all your posts.
Yes! All fine and normal! Have a great day!
If you talk to yourself at least you’re sure of an interesting conversation and you won’t get interrupted… I can already hear Mouse sighing and giving me Advanced Side-Eye.
Yes!!! Good morning!! Good night?
I’m replying 3 hours later at 3.30am, having just waved the Husband off for day shift. My days are all over the place… So I guess, good morning!
There’s a constant conversation going on in my head, but I don’t often voice it except to the dogs. I think they understand almost everything that is said to them. They watch me, read all the verbal and nonverbal cues, and talk back to me. For example, they know a particular pair of shoes means we are going for a walk (excited milling about), they give a big sigh when I sit at my desk, 4 pm and that jacket means we are going to play ball and they wait at the back door, etc. You have so many more creatures in your life who have figured out your patterns and habits. I am sure they enjoy the conversations.
Yes! That is true! The smallest queue will set a dog off! So clever they are plus the ducks seem to learn stuff fast too. They even know what bucket means their food.
They are so much smarter than we give them credit.
Ah you are such an inspiration! And yes I talk to myself – loads! I think it would be good reading your story .. doesn’t sound crazy at all. There is something about hearing people’s voices 😊