My wife forwarded on to me some interesting research that suggested it might be a good idea to talk to your self. And given that Me and the Giles Ego Construct 📦 go back a long way—a relationship that can get quite vocal at times—my ears pricked up!
Published in Nature Journal, the researchers found that when people reflect on negative feelings in the third-person (i.e. using their name, rather than “I” language), it reduced emotional brain reactivity.
It was all done with fMRI brain scans and complicated-sounding things like ‘event-related brain potentials’ so its real-life application should be taken with a rather large pinch of salt, but the researchers got most excited because they think they've found an easier way to regulate emotions.
At the outset, they state,
Emotion regulation, as with many forms of self-control, is typically thought of as an effortful process that depends heavily on cognitive control mechanisms to muffle emotional responses.
…which unless I'm wrong is their way of saying “Life is hard! And you need to work hard at not feeling bad, people!!” 🙄
(And what's with ‘muffling emotional responses’?! Whatever happened to ‘It's ok to not be ok’?!)
So near and yet…
As with all these kinds of well-meaning, popular psychology experiments, they make sense because they're circling round deeper truths, that have gone unnoticed, or unmentioned.