Everyday we are presented with various situations that we hear about or live through. We analyze these situations, think about various options, make choices and live those choices. It is interesting to see how people think through these situations. There are some who like to talk about it, discuss it, analyze it with a friend or family member and make choices based on inputs they get from them. There are others who like to think and analyze it alone and come up with options, and then, validate these options with their close ones. The first kind need company to think through the situation, they need to verbalize their thoughts, they need a vocal discussion to feed in to their thought process. On the other hand, the other kind need some private time, some silence and alone time to dissect the situation, process their thoughts, ponder over the options before they open up and discuss it with others. Just a different personality.
I was having a conversation with my husband – we were talking about this couple where the husband and wife think aloud. They think in each other’s company. They are constantly talking either in person or over the phone whenever they are processing or analyzing a situation. They verbalize as they think and are in synch with each other about the situation in hand. If they have a difference of opinion, they are aware of each others point of view. They don’t have their perspective about anything – it is shared information, shared experience, shared data and shared analysis. They don’t have a personal thought-space. It sounded wow! What a perfect husband-wife relationship! How romantic! Well, my husband was perturbed by this fact – he found it a drab! According to him, they can not sustain this relationship without getting utterly bored with each other. After 10 years, they will just know everything about every situation that they faced in life and they won’t have their side of the story. It becomes a single story.
As we talked more about it, I realized that maybe it is not such a great idea to think aloud. We need our own space. We need to give ourselves the time an space to ponder about things. We need to give ourselves a chance to think freely without any reservations. We need to give ourselves a chance to revert our thoughts before we externalize it. Actually, it is not such a good idea to verbalize the thought as and when they come to our mind. Thinking and analyzing is a complex process – the human vocabulary is not adept to express this process in its complete form. It is very restrictive if we tie up the thinking to talking. Thoughts can fly from one topic to another and lead us from real world to imaginary world. On the other hand, speech needs a flow, a connection, a relation between the words. If we try to talk as we think, then firstly, we are going to slow down the thinking process and secondly, we are going to restrict ourselves going berserk with our imaginations.
Yes, I am convinced, we do need some thinking-space!
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