ReWriting Your Story 

Lesson 2

Insightful discourse on Quiet Mind "What It's Like Having No Inner Monologue and Aphantasia (a blind mind's eye)"

Imagine it's a warm summer day and you are sitting on the beach, The sun is kissing your skin and it makes you feel good. As the sun is shinning down, you begin to reflect about your life and how happy you are. Visualize people laughing and how their joy makes you smile. What do you see as you think about this scene?

When you imagine the above scene, does it make you feel good? Hopeful? Or a better question, can you even see it in your mind? Most of us can, a few can not.

People who can't visualize that scene have no "mind's eye," or their imagination is essentially blind. The ability to visualize events and images plays an important part in our lives as well as the inner voices that confirm how we feel about them.

While most of us do have an inner monologue, not everybody hears their own voice or has an inner narrator. Experts aren’t sure why this is, but there is a theory that it could be down to how the dorsal stream develops. This is basically the language tract within the brain

Aphantasia  is the inability to voluntarily create mental images in one's mind. It occurs when you are blind in your mind.

The reason I am sharing this information in this lesson is because I was mentoring a young woman who was unorganized and have difficulty planning. I learned after guiding her to plan her day in her mind and experience being organized and productive that she couldn't do it. I further asked her to visualize herself accomplishing her goals. Completing her tasks and celebrating the small wins. It was during our conversations about including affirmations in her daily dialogue with herself that I learned that she doesn't have self-talk.

Aphantasia is a phenomenon in which people are unable to visualize imagery. While most people are able to conjure an image of a scene or face in their minds, people with aphantasia cannot.

If you can’t hear your inner voice, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you don’t have an internal monologue. Rather than hearing your monologue, you may see it instead. An example would be rather than hearing your to-do list, you might be able to see it in your mind instead.

For most people, their inner monologue is something they can hear. However, it’s important to realize that not everybody does have one, and some may experience it a little differently than others.

So, why does our inner monologue matter and what kind of power can our stories have over our lives?

Lesson Resources

Comments

"To me, you are the super hero. Why do you think we spend so much money on retreats, yoga, meditation, etc... to quiet our minds, to try to have it shut up, stop narrating, stop judging, stop taking so long to make decisions or to take action, to stop labeling items as you see them, stop filtering through language. To be still. There are things I'm sure we'd love about the way your mind works. Maybe this is an evolution. You're less internally distracted so you're able to focus on the task at hand, and your mind may not need to so long to grab info from the files they're stored in since you also dont have to filter through that extra layer of information such as moving pictures. This whole subject is fascinating. And we need all perspectives In this world, and yours is a special one." ~Santana Claus

What do you think? Do you agree with Santana?

Note: I don't know if the above name is real. I don't care. The comment was thoughtful.

How to stop telling the negative stories from defining your life. Change your story, change your life.

Finding fulfillment in your life's lessons. Unleash joy by rewriting your stories with empathy, compassion, and self-love