Every person has an inner dialogue. Sometimes you notice it, like when you forget your keys for the hundredth time and think “you idiot!”, but more often it just runs in the background without getting your attention. This inner voice can shape your experience in profound ways, so it can be highly valuable to build your ability to notice it and, eventually, interact with it in productive ways. Did you know a great place to do this is during exericse?
Using Exercise and Mindfulness to Notice Your Inner Dialogue
You’ve probably heard of mindfulness, and you might have even tried mindfulness meditation. While you may have the impression that it is all about calming the mind, the first purpose is merely to notice. That “hamster wheel” in your head didn’t start when you began to meditate, it was there all along. You simply see it more clearly when meditating. The benefits of cultivating this awareness can be many, including a greater sense of calm, more presence in your everyday life, and more choice in your actions and reactions. Importantly, mediation is not the only way that you can be mindful. You can make a practice of being mindful and noticing in many different scenarios.
A great place for athletes, performing artists, or anyone interested in improving their mental game is to use mindfulness to observe their inner dialogue during physical training. This is because training is a very structured, very manipulable environment, giving you an endless variety of ways to experiment. You can test your inner dialogue during endurance challenges with a cardio activity, or with a very high repetition weight exercise. You can observe your inner dialogue under pressure with a heavy lift. You can explore your inner dialogue during something that requires patience, like a lifting complex or circuit, or even practicing a sport. You can monitor before, after, and during exercise. Essentially, your physical training is where you can understand and pressure test your self-talk in whatever way you need.
Here are a few examples:
1. Beginning vs. End
A) The purpose of this is to notice changes in your inner dialogue. You can do it within a set or over an entire workout. An example of within a set would be to get in a plank and notice what your mind says over the duration of that exercise. What thoughts appear in the first 20 seconds? How about after 40 seconds. What about after 1 minute? How does it change the more sets you do?
b) You can also pay attention to the character or the types of thoughts that come up. Do certain memories emerge? For example, when I hold a plank I often think back to middle school track and field, which was a painful experience for me! This lets me know I might be feeling some fear about how the exercise is going to feel or how well I am going to do.
B) You can practice the Beginning vs. End exercise over an entire workout as well. Simply make note of your inner dialogue at the beginning of your session, versus the middle, versus the end. Maybe jot down a sentence during each stage. Don’t overthink it, just write what comes. How do the thoughts change over time?
2. The Inner Critic
We all have an inner critic to one degree or another. A common place where you can observe your critic is during exercise. If you make a mistake do you find yourself saying “come on [insert your name here]!” Do you focus on what didn’t go right within a set? Do you compare yourself to others or to your own previous performances? Observe the same for the end of the whole workout. Are you grading your performance and finding it wanting? If you are, something simple to try would be to ask yourself to name everything that went well immediately upon completion of the set. What happens then, and how do you feel about it?
3. Cheerleaders
Jumping off that last one, inner dialogue is not always negative. You may find that you have an inner voice that is positive and encourages you. If you do, turn your attention towards it. Notice it more frequently and also notice how it makes you feel over all. Then pay attention to how frequently it shows up. Can you encourage it to come out more?
Mindfulness in Exercise is About Noticing
What I hope you notice with all of this is that the most important thing is to be curious about what is happening and to notice. You’d be surprised how much change, or inner movement, occurs simply from seeing what is there. Give it a try and enjoy!
