I can’t count the hours I have spent ruminating. It is sad to think how much potential is wasted because so many of us never reach their full potential. Many times, in my life I had ambitious spells, I got organized, calendar blocked my time and turned off all devices. I sat there in silence while my brain was going at 100km/h – obsessing about things totally unrelated to the task at hand. Mindfulness practices have helped me so much. I came across this research article that illuminates the brain science behind it.
Ruminating is a maladaptive form of self-focus, too much of a good thing. In this research article they defined two types of self-focus (1).
Analytical self-focus: Thinking about causes, meaning and consequences of things presented. Trying to understand and make sense of an issue.
Experiential self-focus: Visualizing and focusing on an experience. Remembering the bodily sensations as well as smells and touch during an event.
The participants were prompted with items and the instruction to either contemplate it in an analytical or experiential way. While performing this mental exercise, their brain activity was imaged in an MRI scanner. From other studies they already knew to expect activity in the posterior cortical midline structure (pCMS) (2). And so, they did too.
All participants in the study were healthy individuals, non the less they answered questions about how much they tend to ruminate. In the evaluation of the results, it was found that people with a lower tendency to ruminate had less activity in the pCMS while thinking about the bodily experience of the event than while analyzing it (fig.1). People that ruminate more had an equal amount of activity in the pCMS while reflecting analytically and experientially.
My thoughts …
A large part of mindfulness is, becoming aware of bodily sensations at that very moment. Maybe by practicing experiential self-focus, those of us that ruminate a lot can gain this difference in brain activity.
I also found that it helps in acute situation when I can’t snap out of going over the same situation again and again. I still allow myself to think about it but in an experiential way rather than analyzing it. What I have found was that it helps me to exit rumination and return the task I wish to complete. Rewiring neurons is a lengthy process but it is worth the trouble. We cannot allow past traumatizing events to limit what we can achieve.
(1) The dark side of self-focus: brain activity during self-focus in low and high brooders (2013) M. Freton, C. Lemogne, P. Delaveau, S. Guionnet, E. Wright, E. Wiernik, E. Bertasi, P. Fossati
(2) Medial cortex activity, self-reflection and depression (2009) M. K. Johnson, S. Nolen-Hoeksema, K. J. Mitchell, Y. Levin
