Writing: Calling On Internal Dialogue And Neuroplasticity

 

When I talk to myself
I think about the things that
No one ever talks about like
How life just keeps on givin’
Despite all my bad decisions
I’m still here and I’m still livin’

I used to always
Complain about
Trapped in a maze
I could not get out
We’re all talking to ourselves
About things we cannot help
So talk to me
Cause I’m talking to myself

From “Talking To Myself” By The Linda, Lindas

Do you talk to yourself? I do it every day … for hours. Besides, I'm the only one who will ever listen. 

OK, you may call me crazy, but “talking to yourself” – known as internal dialogue – is a composition of the feelings, emotions, voices, and other mental phenomena that comprise your inner mental landscape. I have a very direct way of doing my own dialogue.

I think you create your reality. It is the way your mind, through attention and intention, structures your experiences and perceives materiality. Dr. David Simon, co-founder of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing in San Diego, once said, “Reality is a selective act of attention and interpretation.” According to this view, our attention is what we put our mental focus on – but it is during the interpretation that the intellect analyzes and derives meaning. This interpretation takes place in the form of internal dialogue.

Put simply, internal dialogue is the conversation your ego is having with itself. It’s the sub-textual voice that applies logic, reasoning, and beliefs to situations, people, and events. It also serves as a filter for those experiences and colors the way in which we see the world.

Thus, the internal dialogue plays a vital role in deriving meaning from your life and reality. When your internal dialogue is dark and negative, you see a world filtered through those qualities. Conversely, when you have positive and optimistic internal dialogue, you perceive those states as the backdrop of your life.

(Adam Brady. “6 Tips to Master Your Internal Dialogue.” https://chopra.com/articles/6-tips-to-master-your-internal-dialogue. Chopra. March 31, 2016.)

Writing And Internal Dialogue

I believe in writing as an internal dialogue to examine topics through your personal investigation and research. It can help you build better understandings – often new and challenging – while allowing you to find your own voice. The mechanical act involves physically exercising your mentality and practicing your ability to unlock innate, unrealized potential. The process is not smoke and mirrors; instead it is both mechanical (putting thoughts on paper) and internal (generating a flow of mental exploration). Will power pushes both activities. Genius or exceptional skill is not required.

“Producing writing is not so much like filling a basin or pool once, but rather getting water to keep flowing through till finally it runs clear.”

– Peter Elbow, Writing Without Teachers

You are reading my internal dialogue – an entry in my “All Things Wildly Considered” blog. I've kept a blog for many years, and I try to practice this writing every day, as I usually make it part of my morning routine. Very often, I find myself lost in the thought process.

For me, this writing is editorial in nature, and it likely springs from my profession of teaching high school English with a concentration on composition. I do publish it; however, my limited audience means much less to me than just thinking things out on paper. Despite occasional objections and comments about the limited value of the words, I continue to write. I love to type these words much like a puzzler likes to solve puzzles or a tinker likes to tinkle. (Oh, I know what you're thinking, but I looked it up and it does mean to give forth or make a succession of short, light, ringing sounds, as a small bell.)

I write to make sense of the world and to stimulate my brain. Through my writing, I can affirm the validity of conflicting positions and benefit from understanding both of them. I can step inside or outside of either/or thinking and work out an approach that may compromise or may favor a logical view. I believe in examining assumptions through critical thinking. I can find my way through a topic while experiencing both doubting and believing.

I usually rely heavily on experts and research to form my own opinions. All the while, the internal voice in my head is working out an editorial through more-detailed and more-supported formulation. I include sources consulted in my entries. My hope is to instill thought and encourage self-discovery although some argue I just like to argue. I confess my guilt to that assumption … but can I please have some leeway?

As a devil's advocate, I know we all seek the truth, yet very seldom – outside of universal truths such as water freezes at 32 degrees – does the truth come packaged as the one and only answer. And, I hope you can see the potential dangers of unanimous agreement. After all, what is “right” is most often debatable. And, for God's sake, these days many people want to reject reason because they deny science or hold onto antiquated ideas. I think some folks just want to invoke revolution and chaos for the sake of anarchy.

I don't wish to annoy others, but maybe like the 16th century “Promoter of Fidei,” a person schooled in Canon Law considered as a prosecutor within the Catholic Church in charge of refuting the evidence in those of beatification before the Pope, I do sometimes question the testimonies and investigate the witnesses of these. Hey, it's a tough job and people might sware to seeing my horns and hooves, but I can live with that. I find when people actively seek the best ideas, they usually find them.

My years of teaching are testimony to urging high school students to thoroughly examine the opposition in argumentative essays to understand a dependable position on anything worthy of debate. If they found no good refutation for concessions, I told them that the “wise” would change their minds – and, of course, their thesis position – and argue the opposite side. Such lessons often involved struggles and mind-bending realizations. Teaching this essay was my favorite assignment. Supported arguments got the superior grades, and, I expect, the whole ordeal raised consciousness of those who judged mainly through peer pressure and mindless adherence.

At this point, I should emphasize my age – 71 years – and my belief that accepting inevitable and necessary change is vital to achieving well being. As a senior citizen, I see others, who due to their rigid belief systems, fail to embrace new ideas and new understandings. Their voice often becomes stagnant and their inner dialogue is so limited that it defies any conflicting intellectual investigation. What happens then? Such a voice simply ages without considering challenges … it sits idly by in that person who cares not to reexamine the ever-changing world. And, soon, the latent voice withers from lack of conditioning.

What to do? You believe; you doubt; you think; you consider alternatives – as you embrace your own natural curiosity. writing will allow you a healthy inner dialogue to find important answers. As you develop more fluency, you ride the currents of exploration, and putting your words on paper helps you refine your navigation through waters both charted and uncharted.

The cliché does apply here: “It’s the journey, not the destination.” All your travels begin with movement, and as you explore the territory along the way, greater zest and happiness occur … oh, and also you usually find a rogue wave or two knocks you in an entirely new direction. Can you be influenced by new ideas to change your perspective. Yes, yes, yes.

Many social issues likely nag you, and if you are like me, you try to find the just relief. Because some people are very dogmatic and exceptionally motivated not to change their minds, a writer may want to approach a controversial issue in a one-on-one conversational tone attempting simply to plant a seed of new understanding while appealing to people's logical foundations. No one can change the mind of an obstinate believer, and I don't want to attempt that. Still, writing and refining my view in a written argument serves my admittedly selfish purpose.

I like to think writing daily helps me keep sharp, and I have time to develop lengthy blog entries. It is my cognitive health activity. A Scientific American research team conducted a study, recently published in the Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences (2019). Their hypothesis: learning multiple new skills in an encouraging environment in older adulthood leads to cognitive growth, just like it does in childhood.

“The old adage we usually hear is that 'practice makes perfect.' Based on what we know about neuroplasticity and deliberate practice, we should rephrase that to read, 'practice makes permanent.' As you organize yourself for this self-reflective prep work, remember that it is not about being perfect but about creating new neural pathways that shift your default cultural programming as you grow in awareness and skill.”

― Zaretta L. Hammond, Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students

“Neuroplasticity” describes how the brain changes itself over time. It’s how you learn new skills and develop habits that guide your life. Your inner dialogue is a function of neuroplasticity as well.

Since a certain age, you have been socialized (programmed) to talk, act, and most importantly – think a certain way. This weaves itself physically into your neuronal structure and can only be changed through consistent deliberate acts of practice. Neuroplasticity encompasses how nerve cells adapt to circumstances – to respond to stimulation by generating new tendrils of connection to other nerve cells, called “synapses,” and to respond to deprivation and excess stress by weakening connections.

(M. Puderbaugh, P.D. Emmady. “Neuroplasticity.” StatPearls [Internet]. January 2022.)

Let me make a simple analogy. Neuroplasticity is the “muscle building” part of the brain; through exercise, you become stronger, and what you don’t exercise fades away. That is the physical basis of why making a thought or action over and over again increases its power. Over time, it becomes automatic; a part of us. We literally become what we think and do.

Historically, scientists believed that the brain stopped growing after childhood. But current research shows that the brain is able to continue growing and changing throughout the lifespan, refining its architecture or shifting functions to different regions of the brain.

Thus, the brain is “plastic” or able to be molded and altered. It is constantly evolving to adapt or change over time by creating new neurons and building new networks.

You still must consider the mold itself. In reality, if you are just “visioneering” yourself as you want to be, any plasticity has limits. You have to condition yourself to be open to change dysfunctional patterns of thinking and behaving and to develop new mindsets, new memories, new skills, and new abilities. Eventually, it will become natural and you will become that better acclimated person.

You must beware of some obstructions to smooth sailing:

(1) In addition to being force-fed negativity every day, your thinking is hardwired into you through years of repetitive motion. It’s going to take work to change that. There’s a law in esoteric psychology that states your what you perceive as “reality” is your inner world pushed out. We all see the world in a certain way, which means we will perform certain actions in the world that will create certain observable effects in the world.

A freshly hatched duckling takes the first moving object it sees for its mother and continues to follow it everywhere. A human, a dog, a goat, or even an inanimate object can serve as a “mother.” Scientists call this behavior “imprinting” and they also say that all humans have this characteristic in themselves.

Consider the “Baby Duck Syndrome” – when a person encounters a new environment and starts to consider the object they see first as the best. Moreover, it is very difficult to persuade this “duckling” to try something new and it’s almost impossible to prove that new things can be better than old ones. On a personal note concerning writing, I swore I would never change from a manual typewriter, then the same vow for an IBM Selectric, then more of the same for a computer word processor.

Here is some other examples from real life: “Paper books are better than digital ones” or “Mobile phones with buttons are more reliable than sensor phones” or “This new design is awful” – these are the phrases indicating a person has baby duck syndrome.

This effect makes a person biased and hinders them from listening to the opinion of others. However, new things can be good and comfortable too.

(2) Orienting your inner dialogue to take advantage of positivity isn’t necessarily easy at first. When employing writing to understand difficult concepts, you must consider how your own inexperience and limitations can weigh you down, If you are entering “your first rodeo,” you may need extended help through the experience. Accept authority information and take your time. Sometimes searching for the elusive truth requires in-depth reading. But rest assured, with practice, you will gain insight and power for much smoother and confident rides in the future.

Also, if you are hardwired to have a negativity bias, realize that some of that conditioning is rooted in your human nature to preserve survival of the fittest. So, that negativity may influence your mental diet of information as well – a diet that can be very chaotic and full of content that is “junk in and junk out” consumption. In that case, you may need to work to keep your self-talk as pristine as it can be. Quality vs. quantity is a definite consideration.

Allow Your Mind And Your Written Words Can Lead You To Discovery

You don't have to be a neurologist or a psychologist who understands the intricacies of the nervous system or left brain/right brain theory to develop your inner dialogue. But, you should understand the connection between conscious creativity and subconscious creativity.

There is no doubt that writing comes from someplace outside the conscious realm. Once you recognize and accept that fact, you can take advantage of the tremendous opportunity of harnessing your unconscious mind. The two sides of our creativity – the conscious and the subconscious – working in harmony and are capable of producing important discoveries.

Do you believe thought are “given to you”? Ask an experienced writer and you will hear them explain how getting started – with or without direction – produces product. They will tell you I didn't exactly know where I was going, but I free wrote or simply put pen to paper (fingers to keyboard) and words took directions.

If there is any magic involved in writing, it is this: Your conscious mind is not actually in charge of moment-to-moment decisions and actions, it only thinks it is. Research shows that the preparation in your brain to take action precedes your conscious awareness of having decided to act – by about 300-400 milliseconds. The decision, therefore, must have been made unconsciously.

Let me run this by you again. Your brain makes up its mind before you realize it, according to researchers. By looking at brain activity while making a decision, the researchers could predict what choice people would make before they themselves were even aware of having made a decision.

(K. Smith. “Brain makes decisions before you even know it. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/news.2008.751. 2008.)

Granted, your conscious mind may not be in charge, but it does have influence. Isn't that revealing? There is stuff going on in your dome that you didn't even know about. (Please cue the theme to The Twilight Zone, Rod Serling.)

Carol Louise Wilde, PhD in biology and author of The Nagaro Chronicle, explains …

“For one thing, it has veto power over unconscious decisions, which it can exercise in the split-second window (150-200 milliseconds) between becoming aware of the decision and the action actually being carried out. In other words, 'will power' is actually 'won’t power.'

“And your conscious mind also indirectly influences the choices your unconscious makes by imagining simulations of possible outcomes – good or bad – to hypothetical actions. That, in fact, is apparently one of its main functions. Unlike the unconscious mind, which 'lives' in the moment, the conscious mind can remember the past in order to learn its lessons, or imagine the future to suggest things that might come to pass. Which means that your conscious self has the opportunity to persuade your unconscious. Most of the time, if the advantages and disadvantages are pretty obvious, your unconscious is probably going to be pretty much of a pushover.”

So, I'll end by applying this to writing and your capable and dependable internal dialogue. Yes, you certainly need to feed yourself good, reliable information to cope and survive. To me, there is no question about this. Unbiased, expert sources provide insights and understandings you need to think critically and to adapt to necessary changes. Yet, your very act of reading … and, yes, your writing process can bring them up close and personal.

Specifics, or what I know as “showing writing” is so powerful. Much of it is based on detailed personal experiences – narratives that can often reveal vulnerability and doubt but also provide important self-insight. Accurately describing a “once,” or an occurrence that happened to you, can bring clarity and depth to your words. Part of the reason I write is that I know the act is cathartic. I want writing to bring joy and fulfillment into my life. I must flesh out my own feelings and beliefs. Most of the time, I just grab the oars, jump into the boat, and row the words and sentences like hell with a little help from my Internet sources. Who knows, maybe my journey may help map out someone else's exploration.

“Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity, and change.”

– Casandra Brené Brown, American research professor, lecturer, author

I'll leave you with this bit of information (which I told my high school writing students every year). Don't sell yourself short. Just use your will power to begin each written journey of exploration, then continue to find your way, and always be true to the basics: (1) inner truths, which include what you consider to be authentic, and (2) outer truths, which you discover are credible in the real world around you. You must stay honest to both to write in your true voice – a believable expression of your own ideas.

The last word: writing gets easier the more you do it. Expect critics when you express your written opinion. They remind you that there is always room for improvement. And, maybe your harshest critic is yourself. You need only write and write some more and then write even more. The wonderful part of doing the activity is that words get captured on paper for future reference, revision, and just plain old ink stains that reveal you.

“The work never matches the dream of perfection the artist has to start with.”

– William Faulkner

History Note:

According to Steven King’s memoir, On Writing, the Master of Horror isn’t very proud of his first novel, Carrie. In fact, he disliked the story so much that he threw his original manuscript in the trash.

Despite Carrie being the novel that launched King’s entire career, he hated his first draft. King didn’t like Carrie as a character, and he claims in his autobiography that it “didn’t move him emotionally.” So after writing three pages of his manuscript, he crumpled up the pages and tossed them in the trash.

It wasn’t until Tabitha went through the waste basket that she found the story and began to read it. Curious to find out what would happen next, she encouraged her husband to keep on writing. “You’ve got something here,” she told him. “I really think you do.”

According to the author, he “never got to like Carrie White” as a character. He also found many of his content unrealistic in the novel, like “Sue Snell’s motives.” And worst of all, King admits in a 1983 interview with Playboy Magazine that his book is both “clumsy” and “artless.” But even so, he encourages fellow writers to keep on writing, even if they aren’t sure whether their story is any good.

(Simone Torn. “Why Stephen King Tossed ‘Carrie’ in the Trash.” https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/why-stephen-king-tossed-carrie-in-the-trash.html/. October 24, 2020.)