The One You Feed - Mini Episode #6-Rumination

Episode Date: September 8, 2014

Eric explores rumination and how damaging it can be to our mental health.What is it?What's the difference between rumination and self reflection?Hebb's Law and the role it plays in rumination.How to escape rumination.Rough Transcript: A few weeks ago I was at one of the local meditation centers and people were doing walking meditation. There was a guy walking incredibly slow and everyone was backing up behind him because no one but a disabled snail can move at that pace. So people weren’t doing walking meditation they were standing and looking at this guy with a grouchy look on their faces.So I decided to stop him and explain that no one else could enjoy the meditation experience and it would be helpful if he could go just a bit faster.A few minutes later we sat back down for sitting meditation and my mind began racing. Should I not have said anything? Was I rude? Was this guy angry? So I decided that when we got up I would go over to him and explain myself and make sure we were good. Problem solved….except not for my mind. On and on it went re-playing the scene and thinking about the upcoming conversation.This is commonly know as rumination or brooding.Rumination is the compulsively focused attention on the symptoms of one's distress, and on its possible causes and consequences, as opposed to its solutions. Rumination is generally considered differently than self-reflection. Self-reflelction tends to offer new insights wheras rumination is just playing the same negative thoughts and feelings over and over.You will never plow a field by turning it over in your mind-Irish ProverbThe challenge with rumination (or brooding) is that it feels like we are doing something about the issue or problem by continuing to think about it and ponder it. However rumination is extremely destructive and has been strongly linked to deep depression and anxiety. In fact a The UK's biggest ever online test into stress, undertaken by the BBC's Lab UK and the University of Liverpool, has revealed that rumination is the biggest predictor of the most common mental health problems in the country.The tricky thing is that worry and rumination can seem essential part of coping effectively. The idea of letting go of rumination and worry can be frightening. The ironic thing is that rumination tends to increase anxiety and effectiveness in problem solving goes down as anxiety increases.In addition a mind that ruminates becomes more likely to continue to do it. We have talked on the show about how we create pathways in our brain that become every easier to fall into the more reengage them. This is not a fanciful idea or silly positive thinking. Neurosccience has something called Hebbs Law. The phrase, “neurons that fire together wire together”  The meaning of Hebb’s axiom is that each experience we encounter, including our feelings, thoughts, sensations, and muscle actions becomes embedded in the network of brain cells, that produce that experience. Each time you repeat a particular thought or action, you strengthen the connection between a set of brain cells or neurons.Think of it like taking a walk in the woods. Your thoughts are like hikers. The first hiker has to blaze her own trail. But over subsequent trips a trail gets worn in to the ground and more and more hikers will take that trail. The more hikers that take the trail the clearer it becomes and the more likely that future hikers will take it. It takes much more energy to go off the trail. Our brains work the same way, there is a need to conserve energy. Our brains use about 25% of the body’s total energy so the brain is going to default to the neural circuits that take less energy.So it’s important to determine whether we are ruminating or problem solving.  If the thinking does not lead to a course of action within a reasonable period it is probably rumination.Back to my story above, the first few minutes while I thought about the situation and came up with a plan of action was useful self- reflection and problem solving. Everything after that was useless rumination.in our interview with Dan Harris he talks about the difference between useless rumination and what he calls constructive anguish . The question he asks himself is “Is this useful?”  If it doesn’t lead to meaningful effective action then it is useless rumination.If we are ruminating the most important thing is to come to a hard stop. As soon as the ruminative thought begins – that one that doesn’t lead to new insights but is the same path – you immediately have to distract yourself with something that requires concentration. The key at this point is to stop the cycle. We have to stop the brain cold, we need to stay off the path. So anything that distracts us and requires concentration will work. Play a game, solve a puzzle, anything is better than the rumination.So a quick summary, brooding is the process of playing negative thoughts and emotions over and over. It is also extremely destructive. It is a key indicator of depression, anxiety, high blood pressure and heat disease. We need to interrupt the brooding as soon as it begins. The best way to do this is to immediately switch the brain to something that requires concentration.Some of our most popular interviews that you might also enjoy:Kino MacGregorStrand of OaksMike Scott of the WaterboysTodd Henry- author of Die EmptyRandy Scott HydeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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at one of the local meditation centers, and we were doing some walking meditation. And there was a guy who was walking incredibly slow, and everyone was just getting backed up behind him because no one who isn't a disabled snail can move at that pace. So people weren't really doing any meditation. They were just sort of standing and looking at this guy with a grouchy look on their faces. So I decided to stop them and just kindly explain that no one else could enjoy the meditation experience and it would be helpful if he could go just a little bit faster. So a few minutes later, we sit back down for our sitting meditation,

and my mind begins racing. Should I not have said anything? Was I rude? Was he angry? Did I do the wrong thing? So I decided that when we got up, I'd go over to him, explain myself, make sure we were good, just kind of talk through it. Problem solved. Except not for my mind. On and on it went, replaying the scene and

thinking about the upcoming conversation. This is commonly known as rumination or brooding, and I'll use those two terms pretty much interchangeably through the rest of this conversation. So rumination is really just thinking over and over and over about what's bothering us and its possible causes, its consequences, as opposed to thinking about solutions. This is generally considered different than self-reflection because self-reflection tends to offer us new insights, whereas rumination is just playing the same negative thoughts over and over and over again. There's an old Irish proverb I like that says,

you'll never plow a field by turning it over in your mind. The challenge with rumination is that it can feel like we're doing something about the issue or the problem by continuing to think about it. However, rumination is very destructive and is strongly linked to deep depression and anxiety. A recent UK study, the biggest ever they did into stress, revealed that rumination is the biggest predictor of the most common mental health problems. The other problem with this is the more that we ruminate, the more likely we are to continue to ruminate. We've talked on the show before about how thoughts tend to perpetuate themselves, that if we think something, we make it more likely that we'll think it again. This isn't a new age, hippy dippy idea.

This is based on real science. It's something called Hebb's Law, and it's summed up with the phrase neurons that fire together wire together. And it basically comes down to that each experience that we encounter, feelings, thoughts, sensations, become embedded in the network of brain cells. A useful analogy is to think of it like a trail through the woods, and your thoughts are like hikers. a trail through the woods, and your thoughts are like hikers. The first hiker has to blaze his own trail, but after that, the trail starts to get worn into the ground, and more hikers are going to take it. The more hikers that take it, the clearer that trail becomes,

and the more likely that the future hikers are going to take it. It simply takes too much energy to go off the trail. Our brains pretty much work the same way. They are evolutionarily designed to conserve energy. I think the brain uses about 25% of the total energy that our entire body needs, so it's going to take the path of least resistance or least energy. So it's important for us to determine whether we're ruminating or problem solving. If the thinking does not lead to a course of action within a reasonable period, it's probably rumination. So back to my story above, the first few minutes while I thought about the situation and came up with a plan of action was useful

self-reflection and problem solving. Everything after that was useless rumination. We had Dan Harris on the show and he talked about the difference between useless rumination and what he calls constructive anguish. And the question he uses with himself is, is this useful? And if it's not leading to meaningful, effective action, then it's probably useless rumination. So if we find ourselves ruminating, the most important thing is to simply stop as soon as we can. As soon as we start having ruminative thoughts, thoughts that don't lead to new insights but simply are circling the same path, we've got to immediately distract ourselves with something that requires concentration.

The key at this point is to stop the cycle. We've got to stop the brain cold. We need to stay off that path, to use the analogy from earlier. So anything that distracts us and requires concentration will work. Play a game, solve a problem. Anything is better than the rumination. Maybe next episode I'll share some positive concentration activities that are helpful. So just to sort of sum all this up,

brooding or rumination is the process of playing negative thoughts and emotions over and over. It's extremely destructive. It's a key indicator of depression, anxiety, high blood pressure, heart disease. The more we ruminate, the more likely we are to continue to ruminate. So we've got to interrupt this process as soon as it begins. The best way to do this is to immediately switch our brain to something that requires concentration so hopefully this is helpful as always I love to hear from you you can email me at eric at one you feed.net and you could also leave us an iTunes review and the reason I'm always harping about iTunes reviews or the reason that it might be helpful for you to leave an iTunes review,

helpful for you that is, is because the more iTunes reviews we get, the more visibility we get, the more visibility we get, the better guests we can get. And so that's really the goal is to continue to be able to attract a high quality guest. So thanks so much for your time. Have a good week and I'll talk with you soon. Bye.