So sometimes this inner voice can be an incredible source of help, / but at other times it can really sink us. // First, it makes it incredibly hard for us to focus. / Chatter consumes our attention. / Chatter can also create friction in your relationships / because you're talking about your problems over and over again, / and not being a great listener to others. // It can also make us more irritable, / and lead to something called 'displaced aggression.' // Finally, we know that chatter can have severe, negative physical health effects. / You've probably heard that stress kills- / that's not exactly true. // A stress response is a really adaptive response. / What makes stress toxic is when it remains chronically-elevated over time. // This is precisely what chatter perpetuates it. / We keep thinking about that event over and over and over again. // And that keeps that stress response active / in ways that can predict things like cardiovascular disease, / chronic inflammation, / and even cancer. // It's hard to overstate how negative the implications of chatter can be. // The good news is there is a science-based toolkit / that you can use to regain control of your inner voice. / There are things we can do on our own, / ways of harnessing our relationships with other people, / and even ways of interacting with physical environments. // One really great example of these tools are rituals. We love having control. / When you experience chatter, / you often feel like your thoughts are in control of you. // One of the things that we've learned through science / is that we can compensate for this feeling of being out of control / by creating order around us / rituals are one way to do that. // A ritual is an ordered sequence of behaviors every time the same way. // That's giving you a sense of order and control. / That can feel really good when you're mired in chatter.