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I can turn off my inner monologue at will. Complete silence but it limits the complexity of my thoughts.
Unrelated but I felt really proud the first time I had an inner monologue in English (not my first language).
Now I realize that my inner monologue language switch according to the context, if I'm thinking about family it will be in French, thinking about work and it switch to English.
So this means you hear your thoughts as if they were on speaker, right? I don't, which is a form of aphantasia, which i also have.
I this is why i mumble to myself all the time, my brain has no speakers
Do you meditate? This is pretty much my meditative state.
I don't, but I've suspected that's what I'm supposed to do if I ever do it. Lol
Some people can't turn off their inner monologue?
To me it's as easy as it is to stop talking. I feel like I'm misunderstanding you.
Apparently not. I struggled with that as a kid and I remember having some sleepless nights when my head would be yapping nonstop. Then one day I learned to stop it.
But I mostly remember this in threads where people on either side of the inner monologue vs no inner monologue discussions discover the opposite exists. And so I'm like, what, you guys can't just turn it on or off? I've concluded that we must be in the third group looking on, who can do either at will.
If I try to stop thinking I just ended up thinking "stopthinkingstopthinking shutupshutupshutup"
I wouldn't say that I stop thinking, but I can act out thoughts, pay attention to things or have new experiences without internally processing them verbally, although it does help with more complex issues.
If I'm having a shower, I just put soap on a flannel, I don't internally verbalise "put some soap on the flannel, I'm putting soap on a flannel now".
Nah it's more like putting soap in a flannel and thinking "where is the soap, oh that's a nice smell, did I feed the cats? Why is he snoring again? Oof it's cold. What was that song? All of the things that I said that I wanted, come rushing back in my head when I'm with you..."
Ok, thanks for clarifying, it's quite interesting to try and understand other people.
Yeah I can't. I think in words, in English, very occasionally Spanish, but always language, words words words.
Yeah, for some (like me) it’s almost impossible.
But then, there are also people that do not have any inner monologue at all…
Yeh, me. I don't really think in words. More like visualisations of what I'm doing, have been doing, or are going to do.
That’s really awesome, that is one of the main goals of most meditation techniques! Sometimes I‘d really like to do that as well.
Have you actively worked on this or were you just able to do this?
Is it difficult to „turn your thoughts back on“?