This quote can be helpful or dangerous depending on how you take it. If by “having a conversation with yourself,” you mean that you want to ruminate, speculate, reconsider, wonder or re-live, then those things are actually quite unhealthy. But if you mean that you want to ask yourself questions like, what is the definition of me/I? or what is the source of my suffering? where you’re looking for that answer within yourself rather than blaming others, then that’s called meditation. That’s what Siddhartha did under the tree to become the Buddha, so in that case you’re making an excellent choice in terms of your psychological and spiritual development. So if you’re blaming anyone else or beating yourself up or re-living something unpleasant, then that’s unhealthy use of self-talk. If you’re using the self-talk to undue and deconstruct the self then that internal debate and those internal questions will absolutely lead to useful and rewarding answers. Happy meditating!
peace. s
Note: Everyone who posts or shares a quote does so with the very best of intentions. That said, I have created the series of Other Perspectives blog posts in an effort to prevent some of these ideas from entering into people’s consciousness unchallenged. These quotes range from silly to dangerous and—while I intend no offense to their creators—I do use these rebuttals to help define and delineate the larger message I’m attempting to convey in my own work. I do hope you find them helpful in your pursuit of both psychological and spiritual health.
Following a serious childhood brain injury Scott McPherson unwittingly spent his entire life meditating on the concepts of thought, consciousness, reality and the self. This made him as strange to others as they were to him. Seeing the self-harm people created with their own overthinking, Scott dedicated part of his life to helping others live with greater awareness. He is currently a writer, speaker and mindfulness instructor based in Edmonton, AB, where he finds it strange to write about himself in the third person.
