The amazing benefits of speaking

[peanutspathtotruth]

I want to share an interesting experience of mine because I think it could be helpful to some of you  

Over the last 2 months, a natural desire to use my voice has bubbled up, inspired by two major points: 
a) I made the simple and obvious observation that a lifestyle of online-university and limited social contact, both due to the pandemic, leaves me silent most of the day. As a result, my voice got even more nasal, weak, and insecure, and my ability to express myself declined as well.
b) I LOVE language, especially English (not my mother tongue), and I recently attended to this love by diving into literature. At one point, I felt the desire to read out loud.

At first, that led me to intuitively hum and 'om' randomly throughout the day, and even speak words and phrases - it just felt good. Then, I started reading out loud daily for 30-60 minutes (Blood Meridian by McCarthy, and The Waves by Wolff), and this IMMEDIATELY had an impact. Although I live in Germany, my workplace is composed of such an international team that we only speak English there. Being at work, I instantly felt so much more capable of expressing myself elegantly, precisely and accurately. I didn't even have to think about it anymore, it just happened. And it also spilled over to my expression skill in German.

This felt extremely freeing and exciting. But here comes the most awesome benefit I didn't even expect: My thinking became more transparent and clear - meaning, I started to "hear" my thoughts very clearly in concrete, linguistic forms. To some of you that might sound odd, because that's just how you experience thinking (I have no idea), but for me this was a breakthrough. Why?:
One of the greatest challenges to developing spiritually, psychologically and emotionally is to correctly identify what one actually thinks. Otherwise, how would one even spot a wrong belief? The thing is that, although I'd say I'm quite a 'clever' and precise thinker, many of my thoughts have always been too abstract/unclear for me to really understand - most of my experiences of thoughts during my spiritual journey had a quality of cloudiness, confusion, and lack of concreteness. I felt my mind moving but could not make out what these thoughts actually expressed in my mind, linguistically, logically. This changed immediately. 

Since then, just a few days ago, I switched from written journaling to spoken journaling, and it's a complete game changer for me. I'm sitting here for 30-90 minutes every day and have a deep, honest and sophisticated talk with myself. Every day I'm having breakthroughs. I cried many times because FINALLY, just through taking the time to look at what is going on inside of me, I understood why I was suffering, why I kept backlashing. And more importantly, I understood clearly what I want in life, and how I'm standing in my own way. The increase in love and compassion I built towards myself is immense. Speaking in this manner is also a great platform for direct contemplation of reality. Written contemplation and journaling doesn't come close for me. What I am working through in 60 minutes of speaking would take ages to write down. The voice feels like this perfect, immediate instrument of expression. It's very beautiful. Of course, sincerity, focus and refined distinction making is needed to not just brabble randomly. 

Maybe many of you have known this for a long time. I feel like this is why Leo once said his episodes help himself integrate on a deep level what he is dissecting in front of the camera. The voice is such a beautiful thing, use it 

Edited July 5, 2021 by peanutspathtotruth

[Barbara]

I understand completely how voice has such an impact. I started to talk alone, firstly voluntarily, just thinking out loud (it was never natural to me to speak my thoughts for myself). I felt resistance so many times. Felt like I didn’t wanted to put some words or thoughts out there. But overcoming this resistance helped me immensely mainly on two fronts: I was practicing honesty, authenticity and acceptance with myself and eventually others. Getting used to put some words and thoughts that I might be ashamed of or not accepting. Then acknowledging them and integrate them if needed. It helps to put things in perspective, and spot deception to some degree, in comparison with thoughts alone. Also, I realized how words can work as defense mechanism. Sometimes I feel I’ll use so many words to say something simple, just not to put me in a tough spot or not hurt anyone. So it’s really important for me, as I realized, to have a clean speech, with simple words, that go straight to the point and are not only glossing over something, also for the sake of authenticity.

Regarding speaking journaling, I’ll try it definitely. I feel I would need to take some notes. Do you take notes?

True quality post! And you sound remarkably coherent, even if english is not your mother tongue.  

[Gili Trawangan]

I need to give this a try.

Thanks for sharing.

[Epikur]

I am big on self talk. Nobody understands yourself as you. Of course then you should put your skills to the test with real conversations but the training helps extremely.

It feels more motivatiing similar when you have a good commentator in a sports match.

Edited July 6, 2021 by Epikur

[peanutspathtotruth]

12 hours ago, Barbara said:

I was practicing honesty, authenticity and acceptance with myself and eventually others. Getting used to put some words and thoughts that I might be ashamed of or not accepting. Then acknowledging them and integrate them if needed. It helps to put things in perspective, and spot deception to some degree, in comparison with thoughts alone. Also, I realized how words can work as defense mechanism. Sometimes I feel I’ll use so many words to say something simple, just not to put me in a tough spot or not hurt anyone. So it’s really important for me, as I realized, to have a clean speech, with simple words, that go straight to the point and are not only glossing over something, also for the sake of authenticity.

This! Amazing insights, I have had some of those as well  And definitely, bringing that into the real world is equally important (and equally beautiful)!

12 hours ago, Barbara said:

Regarding speaking journaling, I’ll try it definitely. I feel I would need to take some notes. Do you take notes?

Not at the moment, but I feel that over time, I'll need to. There is so much being processed, putting it into a kind of written log would probably be very helpful.

[TheAlchemist]

This is awesome, I also realized this in the context of getting out of a rut/thought loops. When you feel stuck in negative thought loops it's very powerful to start speaking your thoughts out loud and to have that type of conversation with yourself. It is the most immediate way I have found to change your state. I might be feeling totally frustrated, depressed and lethargic, and then in just a few minutes of talking my thoughts out loud I will feel the complete opposite; totally open, enthusiastic and full of life. It's so much easier to analyze and detach from your thoughts when you are putting them "out there" through speech, compared to when you keep them in your head, and assume those thoughts are you. Really shocking how well it works. 

[peanutspathtotruth]

20 hours ago, TheAlchemist said:

It is the most immediate way I have found to change your state. I might be feeling totally frustrated, depressed and lethargic, and then in just a few minutes of talking my thoughts out loud I will feel the complete opposite; totally open, enthusiastic and full of life.

Read this yesterday and directly applied it - couldn't sleep and had an exam this morning. You know the classic mind games that start coming in. Just returning to being okay with whatever is, with the help of a few words, made such a difference  I'm going to utilize this more now!
So happy to see others who found this to be of help, too!

[nistake]

Thanks for sharing, this sounds quite exciting!

I always use my handwriting for journaling, but I'll definitely need to give this a try.  

[Preety_India]

 

Actually this has been a huge part of my growth for the past 3 years. I did a ton of self talk. This also helps tremendously with keeping negativity out. It helps me to feel instantly motivated or engaged. I saw that it improves my concentration and awareness greatly. It also helps me out in becoming more succinct, direct, open and authentic about expressing my thoughts. Journaling is also a form of self talk. If you're feeling inconsistent or confused about something, talking out loud brings lucidity and clarity in your thoughts and decisions. It helps with psycho emotional processing and helps you get organized with your thinking. I can call it a very useful habit.