Helpful or Harmful: The Inner Voice feat. Ethan Kross

Ethan Kross says the human ability to be introspective is a super power. We can time travel in our heads. We can be excited about planning the future, and look back on our lives in nostalgia. 

But what happens when that time machine gets stuck? And you're only focused the negative. Here is where the ability to harness that inner voice becomes key. 

Ethan is a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, and the author of “Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It.”

In this episode he shares some tips on wrangling negative thoughts, some benefits of not being in the moment, paralysis by analysis, and zooming in vs zooming out.

Episode Quotes

The cost of depression in the workplace:

The World Health Organization recently put a price tag on this, for the US global economy. They looked at what the cost to the economy is of anxiety and depression in the workplace. And we know that chatter fuels those conditions. The number was $1 trillion for, I think it was 2020. And that's a number that was predicted to rise exponentially over the next 10 years. 

Benefits of the inner voice:

It allows you to do many different things. It's a really flexible tool. It lets you keep information active in your head. You go to the grocery store, you forgot what to buy, you remind yourself, what's on your list in your head: ketchup, tomato sauce, pasta. You can use your inner voice to simulate and plan, like before presentations I'll go over the talking points, what I'm going to say. I do that in my head. You can use your voice to control yourselves. Like when you're working out: “come on four more sets and then I get to take a break.” And this is one of my favorite features just because I think it's so cool. We use our inner voice to create stories that give shape to our sense of who we are.

Being in the moment:

The human mind was not designed to be in the moment at all times. And that's okay, actually. The ability to travel in time in our mind is another one of these amazing capacities that we possess. 

Show Links:

Guest Profile:

• Faculty Profile at University of Michigan
• Professional Profile at Emotion & Self-Control Lab
• Ethan Kross Website
• Ethan Kross on Twitter
• Ethan Kross on Linkedin
• Ethan Kross on Instagram
• Ethan Kross on TEDxGateway

His work:

• Ethan Kross on Google Scholar
• Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It