Ethan Kross

Chatter

Easy to read, this book explains how our inner voice influences us and gives practical ideas of how we can manage it better so that it turns from inner critic to inner guide. Ethan Kross is an award-winning neuroscientist and psychologist, but he shows us that even he is not immune to the detrimental effect our inner voice can have on us. He uses scientific research and real-world examples to bring across his points. I listened to the audiobook, which was very well narrated.

“As naturally as we breathe, we “decouple” from the here and now, our brains transporting us to past events, imagined scenarios, and other internal musings. This tendency is so fundamental it has a name: our “default state.” It is the activity our brain automatically reverts to when not otherwise engaged, and often even when we are otherwise engaged. You’ve no doubt noticed your own mind wander, as if of its own volition, when you were supposed to be focusing on tasks. We are perpetually slipping away from the present into the parallel, nonlinear world of our minds, involuntarily sucked back “inside” on a minute-to-minute basis. In light of this, the expression “the life of the mind” takes on new and added meaning: Much of our life is the mind. So, what often happens when we slip away?

We talk to ourselves.

And we listen to what we say.”