Hi, welcome back to your Daily Mindfulness. In today's session, we're going to talk about a more effective way to talk to yourself. Now you might be thinking Cory, I want to stop talking to myself. There's too much noise going on in my mind. That's why I meditate.

Well, it's kind of inevitable that we're going to be talking to ourselves. The voice in our head is there in each moment. It's telling us if something is safe or not. It's giving us feedback on what's going on in our external world. And it's also providing support when we need to do something that might be difficult.

What we're working with in meditation and in other forms of personal development is relating to that inner voice differently. And sometimes even changing that inner voice, which is what we're going to talk about here. And there's new research by Ethan Cross from the book, Chatter, that shows there's a specific way to talk to yourself that is more effective than the usual way we talk to ourselves. Now, the usual way we talk to ourselves, especially if we're trying to encourage ourselves with some sort of positive affirmation is we talk in the first person. You might be going through something difficult.

And then you may say something like, I'm strong, I'll make it through this. So that would be the first person. But what he's found is that we don't really respond that well to that. The mind sort of goes, yeah, yeah. Whatever.

What we do respond well to is talking to ourselves in the third person, which you could think of as coaching yourself. We tend to be very good at coaching other people, telling them, you know, you're going to make it through this. You're a strong person. You've got this. But less about doing that with ourselves.

So if you change something like I'm strong, I'm going to get through this to, for me, I would say, Cory, you've got this. You're a strong person. You've done stuff like this before. You'll make it through it. It's almost as if I'm stepping outside of myself, turning toward myself and coaching myself.

And it turns out the brain and the body respond much better to this than talking in the first person. So as you continue to, to notice this internal narrative that arises for you throughout the day, which we all have, see if, see what that narrative is. Are you talking to yourself in the first person, like many of us do? And what would it be like to make that more of the third person where you're talking to yourself as a coach? Chances are, you'll see that this is much more effective at helping you navigate difficult situations and also just helping you feel a little better, because it's always good to have someone encouraging you along the way. Thank you for your practice. Let's settle in for today's meditation.