Do you have an internal dialogue? Studies indicate that most people don't have one or only in a limited way. So at least half the population is wandering around all day without a thought in their heads. lol
[verywellmind.com]
I've got an inner dialog going on all the time. Sometimes it's self-criticism, which I'm trying to break myself of, but often it's the self regulating, like stay calm, have some grace, keep on going, like with physical exercises, stay on task. Sometimes it's me getting better, so like don't expect perfection, good enough is good enough.
The past few years, I've been asking myself every few minutes, "Is this what I really want to be doing right now, or should I be doing something else?" I find this helps me stick to activities or pass times that either give me joy, help my sanity or make me money.
When it's not thoughts in my mind, I nearly always have a song in my head, over and over all day same song, but it's usually a good one!
I get the repeating song thing quite often, I've found it can be changed if you interject a different song midway through the one on repeat. Handy trick when it's a song you don't want.
This has been a real problem for me. The People's Pharmacy recommended making a tea from Lemon Balm which helps settle what's known as having a motor mind. This often happen, to me at night. I've now trained myself to put off my mental ruminating until morning.
It's always been there, can't imagine being with out it.
This is such an intriguing subject that I did some research on YouTube and found some very interesting videos with people that have this .What’s really unsettling is that these individuals cannot visualize memories. Their thought process is probably alien to anything that we could imagine
I have a constantly running internal monologue but I can visualize memories, they occur in story format and usually from a remote perspective, like in a movie.
My internal monologue is almost perpetual. It is silent whenever I am listening to somebody else.
Mine too. Sometimes it won't shut up.
@Betty I could not function in life without my internal monologue.
@anglophone I think I would be a basket case without mine.
The idea of a completely/mostly silent mind conjures an image of a desolate landscape for me.
It does explain an awful lot though. I almost always had an immediate solution to problems when I was building hotel projects but it was because my internal dialogue was always running different scenarios of everything that could go wrong with the project. Clients would ask me how I always had the answer, it was because I had dozens of answers for every possibility of every phase of the project, all calculated beforehand.
I recall many years ago when I use to hang out with a group of guys in a coffee shop, there was one person who never laughed at jokes. I use to wonder about his lack of laughter until one day it dawned on me that he may have been unable to visualise the elements of a joke that combine to produce laughter.
You're probably right but maybe he's just an Eeyore.
Interesting, I'm more of a freak than I thought. I've always had an internal dialog.