Intrapersonal Communication

When you think, you use intrapersonal communication. You initiate, receive, and process messages
within yourself. You are playing both the roles of: sending & receiving. Human growth depends on this
internal communication. Through it you know yourself and develop your self-concept, self determination, and self-motivation.
For example, each morning you decide how to dress, what to eat, where to go, etc. This kind of internal
communication forms the foundation for the other four levels of communication. The word - "Intrapersonal" - means within the person. Intrapersonal communication processes happen inside of you. Some people equate these processes with thinking. Although thinking is part of the process, intrapersonal communication includes more than what we think. More importantly intrapersonal processes include the way we think and the way we communicate with ourselves. Intrapersonal communication affects the way we receive messages from others and affects the way we send messages to others.

Normally successful communication requires having an independent sender and receiver, who sens messages back and forth between them. This definition is currently challenged, there are some people who consider intrapersonal communication too useful to be discounted.
Whether or not intrapersonal communication is a valid form of communication, the following actions are considered intrapersonal communication:

• Dreaming (especially daydreaming and lucid dreaming)
• Talking to oneself. This action is normal, since often saying and hearing again helps a person retain information. It becomes abnormal when a person talks to oneself in socially inappropriate situations.
• Your internal monologue, any thoughts you have about what is happening around you.
• Gesturing while you think.