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Silently talking to yourself in the third person during times of stress could help to control your emotions without any additional mental effort compared to first-person self-talk, a study has found.
In their study Third-person self-talk facilitates emotion regulation without engaging cognitive control: Converging evidence from ERP and fMRI., researchers from Michigan State University and the University of Michigan performed experiments on participants while monitoring their brain activity with an electroecephalograph.
Jason Moser, MSU associate professor of psychology, said: 'Essentially, we think referring to yourself in the third person leads people to think about themselves more similar to how they think about others, and you can see evidence for this in the brain.
'That helps people gain a tiny bit of psychological distance from their experiences, which can often be useful for regulating emotions.'
In their study Third-person self-talk facilitates emotion regulation without engaging cognitive control: Converging evidence from ERP and fMRI., researchers from Michigan State University and the University of Michigan performed experiments on participants while monitoring their brain activity with an electroecephalograph.
Jason Moser, MSU associate professor of psychology, said: 'Essentially, we think referring to yourself in the third person leads people to think about themselves more similar to how they think about others, and you can see evidence for this in the brain.
'That helps people gain a tiny bit of psychological distance from their experiences, which can often be useful for regulating emotions.'
Silent Third Person Self-Talk Facilitates Emotion Regulation
Try using your own name during inner dialogues.
www.psychologytoday.com
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