Ethan
Kross
Track Timing
-
Going 'inside' as a child (03:33) |
Defining Chatter (07:41) |
Rafael Nadal and Rituals (20:20) |
Inner voice vs Inner chatter (26:22) |
Time travel, Distancing and Awe (29:02) |
Inner voice - Zooming feature of our minds (41:47) |
Journaling and Chatter (50:30) |
Allowing Venting Vs Coaching (52:53) |
Author - Chatter
Ethan is one of the world’s leading experts on controlling the conscious mind. He is an award-winning professor in the University of Michigan’s Psychology Department. His research has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, The New England Journal of Medicine, and Science. He has recently published the book – Chatter. The book goes deep into talking about the voice in our heads and how we can harness it. Through the book he shows that instead of trying to silence your monkey mind, you can learn to educate it, motivate it, and even reason with it.
All of us have experienced what Ethan calls "Chatter". A never-ending loop of negative thoughts that engulf us and paralyse us at certain periods of time. Ethan speaks about the criticality of how we can work with these emotions and harness them without getting stuck in a vicious loop in their grip. Some of the topics that we covered include: a) The role of rituals and how Rafael Nadal uses it in a tennis match b) The fine line between inner voice and inner chatter c) How we can use techniques like Time-travel, Distancing and Experiencing Awe to deal with Chatter d)Role of Journaling in reducing Chatter e) How we should balance out listening and allowing venting and providing coaching while engaging with someone experiencing Chatter.
Published in Nov 2022.
Nuggets from the
Conversation
Going 'inside' as a child
Ethan speaks about the role of his father in shaping his interests. He speaks about his father’s interest in the Bhagavad Gita and other elements of Easter Philosophy and how he would encourage Ethan to go inside to find the kernel of truth if something bad happens. He speaks about how some of that might have percolated down to him and his career choices.
Defining Chatter
Ethan defines the term Chatter. He uses Chatter as a term to capture the breadth of the different experiences all of which the common feature is looping over the negative thoughts, going down the rabbit hole, sucked into a vortex of negativity that won’t let you free.
Rafael Nadal and Rituals
Ethan speaks about the role of rituals in helping us manage chatter. He goes on to speak about how Champions like Rafael Nadal take the help of rituals in managing their mind when they play tennis at the highest level. He also speaks about the role of rituals in coping with transitions.
Inner voice vs Inner chatter
Ethan speaks about the line between having negative thoughts (which can help us move forward) and Negative Chatter that get us into an unproductive never-ending loop that can prevent us from making progress.
Time travel, Distancing and Awe
Ethan speaks about some of the strategies that he uses to manage Chatter. He speaks about effectively undertaking time travel and how we can ensure that while we undertake time travel, we don’t get stuck in the time machine. He also refers to the benefits of Nature in inducing Awe and the benefit of Distance self-talk.
Inner voice - Zooming feature of our minds
Ethan suggests that our Mind is often functions like a lens when it looks at a situation while our Inner Voice functions like a Zoom button. We have a choice of whether we want to stay Zoomed In our Out when we deal with a situation.
Journaling and Chatter
Ethan speaks about how Journaling, more specifically, Expressive Writing can act as a distancing mechanism, provide closure and act as a meaning making mechanism to some of the Chatter we experience in our lives.
Allowing Venting Vs Coaching
Ethan speaks about how we could be effective in helping people deal with Chatter. He suggests that while we need to play a role of empathizing and listening to allow the person to vent, we also need to consider providing some coaching or widening of their perspective so that they could move forward. He speaks about the few people that he calls Chatter Advisors that he turns to where he gets a healthy balance of listening and Sounding Board support when he experiences Chatter. He speaks about some of the characteristics that leads them to be on his Speed Dial.
