Don’t Let Billboards Ghostwrite Your Mantras

There is messaging all around us; most of it will bum you out.

The internet is a cauldron of horrors, fomenting anxiety and distress. Middling Content helps readers take ownership of their media diet to stay centered and sane. Subscribe for our weekly newsletters, where we bring data and theory together to provide tools and frameworks to help you take back control of your eyes and ears so you can achieve the life you want.

Have you had a good conversation with yourself lately?

A 2008 study found that people are talking to themselves around 26% of the time.¹ So you probably talk to yourself pretty often. But I’m asking about a good, high-quality conversation. When you talk to yourself, what kinds of things do you say? What questions do you ask? What do you hope for? What do you worry about?

Most people can recognize aspects of other people in their inner voice -- often people from their childhood, like parents or teachers or other adults. These unique influences on our inner voices can be particularly noticeable when we interact with other people with…