The 4 Streams of Our Inner Voice

Most of us know about our inner voice.  We hear it every day.  Stanford University Neuroscientist Kelly McGonigal has found that this voice has a default mode that runs automatically.  She has identified the 4 default activities this voice engages in when we are on autopilot:

1.Commentary. On going commentary of what we are experiencing in the present moment. The mind will create an opinion and prefers to criticize. Points out what is wrong with the present moment and crafting alternate realities – the way things should be if. What is wrong or what could be improved. 

2.Remembering and Projecting (Time Travel). Past and Future. Remembering specific things that happened in the past as well as projections into the future about what could happen (e.g. time travel).

3.Identity. Creating an identity through Self-referential Processing. Constantly trying to create a sense of who you are. Ego. “I am the kind of person who”; other people should treat me this way. Trying to strengthen who you are as an individual. A search for our Identity. We think have a fixed sense of abilities. Constructing a rigid sense of who you are and who other people are. 

4.Thinking about other people. Social cognition. What are others thinking about us? What are we thinking about them? – categorizing them. Ourselves in relationship to other people. We compare ourselves to others. Do they have more than what we have?

Personal effectiveness starts when we are aware of these voices, their impact, and then we can direct these separate trains of voices to create positive impact for ourselves and others.