Self Talk

58/100 Self Talk
A few weeks ago I found myself in a rush trip to the tiny toy store in my neighborhood. I love this toy store, so much to look at but in a rush trying to buy a present for a kid I didn’t really know I was already feeling a little irritable. In the toy store was a dad and kid and they were narrating every thought they were having as they slowly walked through the store. The store is so small and no one else was in there so I could not escape hearing them and it was making me crazy. Then I started to think about why I was so annoyed and it was because of self talk. Self talk is a coping mechanism I use all the time because metacognition and sustained attention are weaknesses of mine. I literally have to think reminders to myself to focus to complete a task. Sometimes at home this can literally be me talking to myself. On this morning I realized that my irritation was that these people were distracting me from my own self talk. I then reminded myself what I have learned through this project, these people were not trying to be jerks, their brains worked in a different way then mine. It was then that I realized that actually what they were doing was self talk. The dad was narrating his thinking process probably for himself but also for the benefit of the kid. I suddenly felt so much less irritated, I was able to pick out a present and leave the store feeling way calmer. I am grateful to this project for giving me more understanding of my own thinking but also more patience with the thinking of other people.
#efportaits #100daysofefportraits