Benefits of talking to yourself in the third person (opens in new tab)

So, while reading the beginning of this I immediately thought of buddhism, which they touch on towards the end of the article; the idea of using 2nd or 3rd person language seems directly in line with the concepts of relinquishing attachment, in this case to the 'I', or ego.

That said, it's interesting that they draw parallels to other types of distancing, particularly temporal distancing, because (zen) buddhism, or at least mindful meditation tends to talk about coming back to the moment, or the "now", which seems like a contradiction.

I'm by no means a practicer, just have a lot of curiosity and have read a decent amount about buddhism, zen, and the like, but I'd be curious to hear some of these points expanded on more.

I have indeed had some success with this for mitigating anxiety and frustration, a sort of "mindfulness" technique. In my experience, however, its usefulness seems to be limited to emotional control; doesn't help much with problem-solving, productivity, etc. (Still talk to myself in general, just not third person.)