You Might Be A Secret Genius If You Do This One Thing Alone
This one quiet habit reveals a rare kind of intelligence most people overlook.
Vitaly Gariev | Unsplash I talk to myself all the time, and I don't think it's strange at all. In fact, I think it's one of my saner behaviors. I'm constantly doing affirmations out loud, congratulating myself, and sometimes reprimanding myself. It's not like I carry on entire conversations with myself, but talking to myself helps me to put things in perspective.
Some people believe that when other people talk to themselves, they're weird, but it turns out that people with very high intelligence outwardly talk to themselves.
You might be a secret genius if you talk to yourself when you're alone.
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Why do people talk to themselves?
There are many reasons why people might be talking to themselves. According to WebMD, it could be because they're problem-solving, taking in the world around them, or even motivating themselves to do something. Although these are some of the positive reasons, talking to yourself could be negative and could even be a sign of a serious mental illness like schizophrenia.
It all depends on the type of self-talk you're doing. Are you being mean to yourself? Knocking yourself down or calling yourself names? That kind of negative self-talk will likely have bad results.
Is talking to yourself a sign of intelligence?
Simply put, yes — talking to yourself is a sign of intelligence. Just look at Albert Einstein. The theoretical physicist would often engage in self-talk and speak out loud to himself, repeating sentences to stay focused and pay attention to the task at hand.
If that doesn't do enough to make you believe that self-talk is a sign of high intelligence, a study conducted at Bangor University in the UK might. The study, conducted by psychologists Daniel Swigley and Gary Lupyan, included an experiment that would help participants' search functions.
Swigley and Lupyan showed several objects that you would find in a supermarket to 20 people who were told to remember them. Half of them were told to repeat the objects, while the other half remained silent.
By the end of the experiment, the results showed that self-directed speech actually aided participants in finding the items faster. In short, the study found that using verbal clues helped participants when searching for lost objects.
Rather than being a sign of distraction, this research shows that talking to yourself is actually a smart strategy your brain uses to help you focus better, remember things more easily, and perform better on difficult tasks. Self-talk isn't just normal; it's your brain working to improve how well you find and remember information.
The next time you catch yourself talking out loud while working through a problem or searching for something, don't feel self-conscious about it. Research suggests you're actually engaging in one of your brain's most effective tools for success.
This habit reflects a brain that's engaged, thoughtful, and operating at a higher level of cognitive function. So embrace it. Turns out that talking to yourself might just be one of the smartest things you can do.
Christine Schoenwald is a writer, performer, and frequent contributor to YourTango. She's had articles featured in The Los Angeles Times, Salon, Bustle, Medium, Huffington Post, Business Insider, and Woman's Day, among many others.
