Research on the role of self-talk is extensive and has been going on for years--especially in sport psychology. I recognized the importance of self-talk as a teen-ager--and began to use it decades before I ever studied the research. Some of the fiction I was reading included conversations an individual was having with theirselves. And I thought it might be helpful too. At first I used it because it worked to change my behaviors and learn new ones. These internal conversation served numerous capacities for me as just a high school student in the early 1950s. It made sense and worked well for me. In this blog, though, I simply want to report on how I resolved some short-term stress with a bit of self-talk.
But first, what do I mean by the term self-talk? Self-talk is just another of the terms that originated in the humanities and was plagiarized by psychology.
Actually, the notion of talking to yourself has a long history, beginning with the philosopher Plato, who discussed it more than 2,000 years ago. By the 1880s, researchers began studying what self-talk was and how it worked. This notion of internal speech took off in the 1930s with work by the Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky, who proposed a theory about how it develops. Vygotsky suggested that`. . .
By the 1970s, cognitive psychology was brought to sports and the result was that researchers began to explore the positive role of self-talk and performance.
More recently, there's been a lot of work on the development, neurobiology, phenomenology, and cognitive functions of self-talk. Some studies compare spontaneous and goal-directed self-talk, and have found differences in grammar, content, and frequency.
Impact of curiosity
Recently I’ve had a couple falls. The first one was the result of wearing new shoes with rubber soles and carrying a lot of packages at the local mall. I ended up with a black eye and a cut on the side of my face. Rather than screw around with the store manager’s recommendation, I just headed to the Med School’s emergency where I had a couple images and spent the night under observation. The trauma specialist was superb, telling me that there was no obvious concussion, but that it would probably take four to six weeks to get over the resulting balance problem. Then three weeks ago, I was careless with my workout at the lake and had another fall. This time on my butt, but shaking up my brain a bit. It’s only been a week now since my balance is nearly back to normal. Oh yeah, at my kids’ insistence, I’ve started carrying my trekking pole with me at all times.
But late last week, I noticed that I was getting stressed over what’s happening to my body. Wondering whether balance problems and repairing personal physical acts as a result of working out would ever fully heal so I could begin to get back to normal. I realized a few days later that the issue was bothersome and beginning to stress me.
Resolution
it crossed my mind that the smart thing, rather than continuing with the stressing, was to figure out what’s normal for working out, especially for a ninety-year-old male. So, I did my research, finding that soreness and a bit of pain (1 –3 on a scale of 10) was just normal stuff, even for a thirty-year-old. I also decided that if I had a trekking pole around most of the time, watched my walking a bit more (focus on heel/toe), and continued my coach’s work with me on balance, strength and flexibility, a certain amount of pain would be normal and a bit more built-in walking caution would probably enable me to avoid serious falls and enhance my balance. I noticed happily, last night, while standing on one foot in the grocery line, that my balance was getting back to normal. Furthermore, I had 3 successful sessions of one minute each, standing blind.
I confirmed all this with my well-educated coach last week. He laughed and said a bit of pain is normal for any aged person regularly working out. And that the standing blind is a fine test of stability and growth.
I had done my homework. I had a full understanding of my physical reality—including fundamental expectations. So, I had a brief bit of self-talk, getting my self-more used to a bit of soreness which goes away in twenty-four hours. Basically what I told myself was that pain was normal--just part of reality. And that there's nothing wrong with a litle pain. It's indicative of growth.
As a result of dealing intelligently with reality, the stress is now completely gone. Writing this blog, and adding a bit of caution to my walking and working out have resolved the issue. I’m certain there will be slight breakdowns again, but I’m certainly not worrying about it. There’s a note, which serves as a reminder to take my trekking pole tacked to my apartment door. It’s worked just fine for more than a week already.
The research on self-talk is extensive. You can find much of it by Googling “self-talk.” But here’s a fundamental link in a study by the Nobelist, David Kahneman http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.58.9.697.