This is hidden brain.
I'm Shankar Vedantam.
When was the last time you stayed awake at night, unable to sleep, replaying something in your head that happened that day?
Did you notice how your thoughts coil back on themselves?
How you went in circles as the night wore on?
All of us, even those who have been spared the pain of insomnia, have heard that voice.
If you've messed up a presentation at work, or flubbed a test at school or been rejected in love, you've heard those nagging, doubting thoughts burrowing themselves deeper and deeper into the recesses of your brain.
Ugh.
How could I say something so stupid?
Why did I say, how does it mess?
Why am I always so lazy?
It really should have worked out.
I cannot believe you forgot to fill out that permission form.
You forgot about parent teacher conferences.
What the hell?
My back hurts.
My body is just falling apart.
Why does this inner voice seem to love to torment us?
Wouldn't life be better if we could just make it stop?
When that negative inner voice takes hold?