The Voice Inside Your Head: Dealing with Incessant Thought-Chatter

 “Thought-chatter” is completely normal for human beings. Usually, whenever our attention isn’t occupied, a stream of mental associations flows through our minds — thoughts about the future or the past, fragments of songs or conversations, daydreams about alternative realities or friends or celebrities. Usually we call this mental activity “thinking,” but this isn’t really accurate. Thinking suggests something active, over which we have conscious control, but almost all of our thinking isn’t like this. It’s almost always random and involuntary. It runs through our heads, whether we like it or not. That’s why I prefer the term “thought-chatter.”

Real thinking is when we consciously use powers of reason and logic to evaluate different options, deliberate over problems, decisions, and plans, and so forth. We often like to think of ourselves as rational creatures, superior to animals because we can reason, but this kind of rational thinking is actually quite rare. And, in fact, thought-chatter makes it harder to use our rational powers, because when we do have issues to deliberate, it streams through our minds and diverts our attention.

For example, imagine you’re trying to decide what to buy your partner as an anniversary present. While you’re thinking about it, memories of your wedding day run through your mind and then of your honeymoon in Italy, which reminds you about a scandal you recently read about the Italian prime minister, which sets you thinking about the political situation in this country, which reminds you that have to file your taxes … It’s so difficult to focus your thoughts that no ideas come into your mind, and you have to ask your colleagues at work what they would like to have as a gift if it were their anniversary.

Being immersed in thought-chatter isn’t so different from dreaming — at least, the kind of associative dreaming that sorts through the impressions and information we’ve absorbed recently and sends a strange mixture of them back through our minds. We have a little more control over thought-chatter than dreams, and it comes from the conscious mind rather than the subconscious, but essentially it’s the same whirl of mental material. (Of course, this is suggested by the term “daydreaming.”)...<<<Read More>>>....