Question 1

What is Self-talk?

Accepted Answer

Self-Talk is the running commentary in your head. It's what you tell yourself inside your head. If you close your eyes right now and look internally, what is the thought you can hear or the visual you can see? This is your self-talk.

Question 2

What are the alternative terms people use to refer to self-talk?

Accepted Answer

Inner Voice, Inner Dialogue, Inner Critic, Inner Hero

Question 3

Why do I hear my self-talk?

Accepted Answer

Self-Talk is your mind communicating with you, telling you things about what’s happening to you and what you should do.

Question 4

Is self-talk always verbal?

Accepted Answer

No. While some of us “hear” our self-talk, others “see it” or “feel it”

Question 5

How’s my self-talk created?

Accepted Answer

Our past experiences, beliefs and trauma play a huge role in our current self-talk. Self-Talk is basically our subconscious interpreting what we are going through right now and what’s good and bad for us.

Question 6

What’s negative self-talk?

Accepted Answer

Negative self-talk is thoughts that trigger difficult emotions such as anger, anxiety, depression etc. Being self-critical is a type of negative self-talk.

Question 7

In what ways do people indulge in negative self-talk?

Accepted Answer

All or nothing thinking, Catastrophizing, Negative Labeling, Mind Reading, Minimization of the positive and Overgeneralization are some of the ways we end up thinking negatively in any situation.

Question 8

Is negative self-talk bad for my mental health?

Accepted Answer

While negative self-talk per se is not bad for your mental health, prolonged negative self-talk and hyper self-criticism are shown to create an imbalance in emotional wellbeing making you feel anxious, depressed and low in many life situations.

Question 9

What’s an Automatic Negative Thought (ANT)?

Accepted Answer

When a situation or a trigger makes you think negative instantaneously, these thoughts are called ANTs. ANTs are the product of subconscious.

Question 10

What’s a Repetitive Negative Thought (RNT)?

Accepted Answer

When a negative thought keeps occurring multiple times in your mind, its called RNTs. RNTs are found to be a transdiagnostic factor in mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression etc.

Question 11

Can I change my self-talk whenever I want?

Accepted Answer

Your self-talk is an aggregation of your past experiences, trauma and actions. It’s a subconscious process. You can impact your self-talk through emoitonal exploration on a medium to long term time-frame.

Question 12

I feel negative all the time. Is this my self-talk?

Accepted Answer

Feeling negative doesn’t necessarily mean your self-talk is overtly negative. It could also mean that you are not aware of your positive self-talk like self re-affirming and self-managing thoughts. You can use the self-talk pattern test to see how your self-talk is at any point in time.

Question 13

If I say positive things to myself, will my self-talk get better?"

Accepted Answer

While positive reaffirmation can have a short-term impact on your emotions, on the long-term it's effects are not proven. Your self-talk is an aggregation of your experiences and while repeating positive statments can have an effect, the effect does not become permanent without emotional exploration and self-talk reframing.

Question 14

How can I change my self-talk?

Accepted Answer

Through Emotional exploration and reframing.

Question 15

What is the Inner voice?

Accepted Answer

Your inner voice is your self-talk communicating to you through verbal, visual or feeling based sensory information.

Question 16

How do I manage my self-talk?

Accepted Answer

1. Be aware of your self-talk
2. Explore your emotions behind your self-talk 
3. Ask yourself the right questions to break unuseful self-talk and reframe your emotions

Question 17

How can I impact my self-talk?

Accepted Answer

Journaling, Meditation, Mindfulness etc.are all ways you can impact your self-talk through emotional exploration

Question 18

How can I become more aware of my self-talk?

Accepted Answer

By talking through the situation, you recruit additional auditory memory to be aware of your self-talk and make sense of the underlying reasons behind your emotions.

Question 19

What is the science behind self-talk?

Accepted Answer

1. Psychologist Dr. Thomas Brinthaupt has identified four different dimensions to the way we talk to ourselves inside our minds. 
2. Storytelling is found in research studies to be a powerful resource to process our emotions and achieve wellbeing 
3. Negative self-talk is found by research studies to increase in frequency during times of stress, crisis and natural disasters 
4. James W Pennebakser, a psychologist at the University of Texas at Austin, has shown that storytelling can help mend lives broken by trauma.

Question 20

Why I am suddenly feeling negative after Covid-19?

Accepted Answer

Research finds that stress, crisis and natural disasters such as covid-19 pandemic can trigger elevated negative self-talk in individuals.

Question 21

Why should I care about my self-talk?

Accepted Answer

Your self-talk has a direct co-relation with your mental health. Whenever your self-talk is imbalanced and becomes overtly negative, you will experience more difficult emotions such as anxiety, depression etc. By tracking and managing your self-talk, you can manage your emotional wellbeing better.

Question 22

What’s my chatter pattern?

Accepted Answer

Professor Thomas Brinthaupt has identified four different dimensions to the way you talk to yourself at anypoint in time. This is the chatter or self-talk pattern and you can find your self-talk pattern by taking this test.

Question 23

How does self-talk affect my emotions?

Accepted Answer

Your self-talk, which is an aggregate of your intelligence, tells you what to do, how to react, and respond in any situation. If your self-talk is imbalanced, you will think negatively and experience negative emotions a lot, there by directly impacting your quality of emotional wellbeing.

Question 24

Is there a pattern behind my self-talk?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Professor Thomas Brinthaupt has identified four different dimensions to the way you talk to yourself at any point in time — Socially Assessing, Self Critical, Self Managing, and Self Reinforcing.

Question 25

What does it mean when I am highly Socially Assessing?

Accepted Answer

When you are highly socially assessing, you give a lot of value to how people around you act and behave. More specifically, you spend time thinking about people’s actions in relation to how it affects you.

Question 26

What does it mean when I am highly Self Critical?

Accepted Answer

When you are self-critical, you spend a lot of time focusing on your weaknesses and ways you could improve. When this becomes high, you end up having negative generalizations about yourself that affects your wellbeing and quality of life.

Question 27

What does it mean when I am highly Self Managing?

Accepted Answer

At this stage, you know how to absorb information from the world and from within you in a way it helps with your goals.

Question 28

What does it mean when I am highly Self Reinforcing?

Accepted Answer

At this stage, your self-talk is rich with positively reinforcing statements that focus on your strengths and capabilities.

Question 29

Why should I care about my self-talk pattern?

Accepted Answer

Today, we try to understand and manage our mental health by tracking our emotions. While emotions can be useful, they don’t give you the entire picture. Our self-talk pattern is the engine that drives our emotions and actions. By measuring and tracking your self-talk, you can get a stronger hold on your emotions and behaviour.

Question 30

What’s the role of self-talk in sports?

Accepted Answer

Sportspersons and top athletes have been using the power of self-talk to improve their cognitive and athletic performances for some time now. This research and knowledge are now trickling down to everyone in the world with Konvos.

Question 31

What’s the relationship between self-talk and emotional intelligence?

Accepted Answer

Emotional Intelligence is our ability to use our emotions to understand, use, and manage our own emotions in ways that are useful to us.

Question 32

What is “embodied cognition”?

Accepted Answer

Embodied cognition is an approach that broadens the traditional definition of cognition limited to Mental processes, to include bodily processes and movements.

Question 33

How does embodied cognition affect my emotional wellbeing?

Accepted Answer

Our ability to think with our bodies also provides us with ways to improve our emotional wellbeing such as Yoga, exercise, running etc.

Question 34

I have no idea how I am feeling right now. What should I do?

Accepted Answer

On Konvos app, you have a series of “embodied cognitive” states that provides you with a visual of how you might be feeling right now. By choosing the state that vibes with you, you can start going through our “self-talk” triggers that help you understand your emotions better.

Question 35

Are emotions the right indicators of my mental health?

Accepted Answer

Emotions and moods can tell you how you have been feeling. But they don’t necessarily indicate how your Mental Health has been. Your ability to act in ways that are in line with your goals indicate how your mental health is right now.

Question 36

What does improving my self-talk even mean?

Accepted Answer

Improving your self-talk means that you are aware of how you are talking to yourself within you and using this insight to think in ways that are useful to your life and goals.

Question 37

I catch myself saying awfully negative things to myself. Am I the problem?

Accepted Answer

No. Our past experiences and trauma and our current life situations play a huge role in being highly self-critical to oneself. Fortunately, there are science-backed ways to break out of this negative loop.

Question 38

Why am I hearing negative things about myself in my head?

Accepted Answer

Negative generalizations are a result of life experiences, trauma, and stress turning our attention excessively inwards. We look into ourselves for improvement constantly because we are not able to control things outside us. When this self-talk pattern becomes excessive, you start feeling negative about yourself all the time.

Question 39

What are some of the important books about self-talk?

Accepted Answer

Chatter by Ethan Kross, Self Talk : How to change the way you think about yourself by Erik Smith are some relevant books on the subject

Anything and everything you need to know about your self-talk