Transformative psychology #5: Self-talk as encouragement and protection

"Self-talk" is not a phrase used to my knowledge when I was young. Now, however, psychologists from many perspectives with many motivations have centered it in psychological health and performance enhancement. Even the military sees[1] the value in helping its members understand and learn adaptive practices of self-talk.

They note the difference between more-or-less "automatic" self-talk--spontaneous and sometimes debilitatingly self-deprecating with no helpful measure of appropriate self-confidence--and what they call "strategic" self-talk, which is meant to be conscious, deliberate, motivational and problem-solving.

Researchers also found self-talk can improve anaerobic power, especially when that self-talk is motivational and is accompanied by the physical affirmation of head-nodding (Mateos, Ruiz & Horcajo, 2024).

Self-talk can prep us for stressful situations. We train to engage in it on the Portland Peace Team in order to head into escalated situations with no available triggers, no chink in our emotional armor that can reduce us to debate, argument, or loss of temper. 

Thus, self-talk is shown to be effective in preventing emotional explosions and also in increasing explosive (anaerobic) power, physically.

References

Mateos, R., Ruiz, I. C., & Horcajo, J. (2024). Increasing Anaerobic Power in Cycling By Implementing Embodied Self-Talk. Sport Psychologist, 38(3), 207–216. https://doi-org.proxy.lib.pdx.edu/10.1123/tsp.2023-0154 

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[1] https://www.armyresilience.army.mil/ard/r2/The-power-of-Self-talk.html#:~:text=Benefits%20of%20Effective%20Self%2DTalk,%2Desteem%20and%20self%2Dworth.