1 00:00:03,000 --> 00:00:06,760 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:13,200 --> 00:00:15,360 Speaker 2: Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My 3 00:00:15,440 --> 00:00:19,079 Speaker 2: name is Robert Lamb. Today I have a special interview 4 00:00:19,400 --> 00:00:24,160 Speaker 2: to present you with. I recorded this last week and 5 00:00:24,560 --> 00:00:26,600 Speaker 2: it is going to be a discussion of mind drama, 6 00:00:26,640 --> 00:00:28,880 Speaker 2: the Science of rumination, or how to Outwit your Inner 7 00:00:28,880 --> 00:00:32,880 Speaker 2: Defeatist by Donna Jackson Nakazawa. I'm going to hold the 8 00:00:32,880 --> 00:00:35,159 Speaker 2: book up here for folks who are joining us on 9 00:00:35,320 --> 00:00:39,360 Speaker 2: video on Netflix. You can find this book wherever you 10 00:00:39,520 --> 00:00:43,360 Speaker 2: get your books right now, and as you'll see, I 11 00:00:43,479 --> 00:00:45,760 Speaker 2: highly recommend it. I thought this was a terrific read 12 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:50,000 Speaker 2: and it is a very important topic. Donna Jackson Nakazawa 13 00:00:50,080 --> 00:00:52,520 Speaker 2: is the author of five books that explore the intersection 14 00:00:52,600 --> 00:00:56,240 Speaker 2: of neuroscience, stress and emotion, including Girls on the Brink, 15 00:00:56,440 --> 00:00:58,280 Speaker 2: which was named one of the best health books of 16 00:00:58,320 --> 00:01:01,200 Speaker 2: the Year by The Washington Post, The Angel and the 17 00:01:01,240 --> 00:01:03,440 Speaker 2: Assassin named one of the best books of the Year 18 00:01:03,440 --> 00:01:07,880 Speaker 2: by Wired magazine, and Childhood Disrupted, a finalist for the 19 00:01:07,920 --> 00:01:11,520 Speaker 2: Books for a Better Life Award. Her work has appeared 20 00:01:11,560 --> 00:01:15,000 Speaker 2: in Wired, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, Health Affairs, 21 00:01:15,200 --> 00:01:19,720 Speaker 2: stat Psychology Today, and psychotherapy networker. She has appeared on 22 00:01:19,760 --> 00:01:22,960 Speaker 2: Today in NPR and is a regular speaker at universities 23 00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:27,640 Speaker 2: and organizations including the Childmind Institute, Harvard Science, UCA Health, 24 00:01:27,840 --> 00:01:32,040 Speaker 2: and Rutger's Health. It was a real honor to chat 25 00:01:32,160 --> 00:01:35,759 Speaker 2: with Donna Jackson Donkazawa. Without further ado, let's jump right 26 00:01:35,840 --> 00:01:41,360 Speaker 2: into the interview. Hi, donad Welcome to the show. 27 00:01:41,840 --> 00:01:44,160 Speaker 3: Thanks for having me, Rob and looking forward to it. 28 00:01:44,560 --> 00:01:47,000 Speaker 2: The new book is Mind Drama, The Science of Rumination 29 00:01:47,160 --> 00:01:49,840 Speaker 2: and How to Outwit your Inner Defeatist. And when I 30 00:01:49,880 --> 00:01:51,520 Speaker 2: saw the title of this book, when I saw who 31 00:01:51,520 --> 00:01:53,240 Speaker 2: had written it, I knew that we had to have 32 00:01:53,280 --> 00:01:55,840 Speaker 2: you on the show. This is something that I struggle 33 00:01:55,920 --> 00:01:59,440 Speaker 2: with a fair amount in my life, and according to 34 00:01:59,480 --> 00:02:02,360 Speaker 2: your book, whole lot of us do. So to start off, 35 00:02:02,400 --> 00:02:05,040 Speaker 2: would you mind just defining what rumination is? 36 00:02:05,720 --> 00:02:09,880 Speaker 3: Absolutely so, Rumination is kind of an interesting word, because 37 00:02:10,200 --> 00:02:12,560 Speaker 3: if we think of it in the common vernacular, right, 38 00:02:12,639 --> 00:02:15,520 Speaker 3: it's those thoughts spirally and those thought loops that we 39 00:02:15,560 --> 00:02:18,600 Speaker 3: get stuck in and they feel so terrible, sounds like 40 00:02:18,639 --> 00:02:20,800 Speaker 3: you know what I'm talking about, and we can't get 41 00:02:20,840 --> 00:02:23,880 Speaker 3: out of them. We load the same reels over and 42 00:02:23,919 --> 00:02:26,720 Speaker 3: over again, and we want to get out, but our 43 00:02:26,760 --> 00:02:31,080 Speaker 3: brain is really terrible at helping us exit them. But 44 00:02:31,160 --> 00:02:35,640 Speaker 3: when you look at the word rumination itself, something I 45 00:02:35,680 --> 00:02:37,959 Speaker 3: love about it as a writer is that it has 46 00:02:38,080 --> 00:02:40,600 Speaker 3: two meanings. There are a few words that have two 47 00:02:40,760 --> 00:02:44,760 Speaker 3: meanings in the dictionary, like cleave. You can cleave too something, 48 00:02:44,880 --> 00:02:47,639 Speaker 3: or you can cleave it and cut it away. Rumination 49 00:02:47,800 --> 00:02:51,720 Speaker 3: is very similar. It can be and most often is 50 00:02:51,760 --> 00:02:59,240 Speaker 3: for us as humans negative recursive, brooding, overthinking, replaying, rehashing, 51 00:02:59,360 --> 00:03:06,200 Speaker 3: future judging, self criticizing, and judging others. But it also 52 00:03:06,480 --> 00:03:12,160 Speaker 3: means to ponder, to muse, to id, to inspire, and 53 00:03:12,240 --> 00:03:14,400 Speaker 3: so really I wanted to dig into that. 54 00:03:15,080 --> 00:03:19,320 Speaker 2: So what's actually happening in our brains when we are ruminating, 55 00:03:19,360 --> 00:03:20,160 Speaker 2: when we're caught. 56 00:03:19,960 --> 00:03:25,440 Speaker 3: In this loop, Well it's pretty bad. And problematically, one 57 00:03:25,480 --> 00:03:28,200 Speaker 3: third of us don't even know what the word rumination means, 58 00:03:28,400 --> 00:03:31,360 Speaker 3: and yet science shows we're doing it more than we 59 00:03:31,400 --> 00:03:34,240 Speaker 3: ever have before, probably not a surprise to any of us, 60 00:03:34,320 --> 00:03:38,160 Speaker 3: because we're experiencing it in real time, and that's really 61 00:03:38,160 --> 00:03:43,160 Speaker 3: a problem because you cannot solve a problem you've never named. Meanwhile, 62 00:03:43,440 --> 00:03:46,440 Speaker 3: science has been plunging ahead, which is one of the 63 00:03:46,480 --> 00:03:49,280 Speaker 3: things I love about writing about science, right, because you 64 00:03:49,320 --> 00:03:53,160 Speaker 3: get to close that gap between what neuroscientists are doing 65 00:03:53,200 --> 00:03:55,200 Speaker 3: in the lab and what we're able to use in 66 00:03:55,240 --> 00:03:59,400 Speaker 3: our living rooms. So when scientists have been looking into 67 00:03:59,440 --> 00:04:03,720 Speaker 3: where room nation happens in the brain, it happens in 68 00:04:03,760 --> 00:04:07,760 Speaker 3: this one area known as the default mode network. Now, 69 00:04:07,840 --> 00:04:09,840 Speaker 3: probably a lot of your listeners have heard about the 70 00:04:09,880 --> 00:04:13,320 Speaker 3: default mode network. It used to be thought of as 71 00:04:13,400 --> 00:04:15,800 Speaker 3: kind of this nothing burger in the brain that it 72 00:04:15,840 --> 00:04:17,800 Speaker 3: really didn't do very much. It was just kind of 73 00:04:18,240 --> 00:04:21,039 Speaker 3: think of your car idling in the driveway, not really 74 00:04:21,080 --> 00:04:27,679 Speaker 3: in gear. Not true. fMRI scans show that the seat 75 00:04:27,800 --> 00:04:32,280 Speaker 3: of our ruminating thoughts is the default mode network. And 76 00:04:32,680 --> 00:04:36,520 Speaker 3: as the word implies, or the same the title implies, 77 00:04:37,080 --> 00:04:39,960 Speaker 3: it's a network of three areas. One is in the 78 00:04:40,000 --> 00:04:42,359 Speaker 3: front of your brain, one is in the side, and 79 00:04:42,400 --> 00:04:45,200 Speaker 3: one is in the back. When you're a ruminating rob 80 00:04:45,440 --> 00:04:50,799 Speaker 3: this area, this network is a blocked circuit. It closes down, 81 00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:53,640 Speaker 3: It spins and spins like a top. That's really what 82 00:04:53,680 --> 00:04:57,040 Speaker 3: it feels like, right. And one area is serving up 83 00:04:57,040 --> 00:04:59,760 Speaker 3: a lot of mental imagery, one area is serving up 84 00:04:59,760 --> 00:05:02,760 Speaker 3: a lot out of intense emotion, and one area is 85 00:05:02,800 --> 00:05:06,159 Speaker 3: serving up that clutch, sort of contracted feeling that we 86 00:05:06,279 --> 00:05:09,520 Speaker 3: get when we're caught in our icky, sticky little thought loops. 87 00:05:10,360 --> 00:05:14,680 Speaker 3: And the problem is that this is a survival response 88 00:05:14,720 --> 00:05:19,240 Speaker 3: gone rogue. Your brain's trying to protect you. It just 89 00:05:19,400 --> 00:05:23,000 Speaker 3: doesn't know how to stop, and we have to actually 90 00:05:23,080 --> 00:05:25,760 Speaker 3: use tools to intervene and get out of it. Our 91 00:05:25,800 --> 00:05:27,800 Speaker 3: brain is terrible at it alone. 92 00:05:28,640 --> 00:05:31,640 Speaker 2: So it's kind of like a cycle and a dryer, 93 00:05:32,120 --> 00:05:35,560 Speaker 2: except it's not actually going to ever finish the load. Right. 94 00:05:35,880 --> 00:05:38,159 Speaker 3: I love that I'm going to steal that one. I 95 00:05:38,200 --> 00:05:41,640 Speaker 3: think of it as like an airport on lockdown, and 96 00:05:41,680 --> 00:05:44,800 Speaker 3: the planes can tax you around and around, but nothing 97 00:05:44,839 --> 00:05:47,960 Speaker 3: can fly in and nothing can play out. And that's 98 00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:51,799 Speaker 3: really not healthy for us because rumination and the degree 99 00:05:51,839 --> 00:05:54,560 Speaker 3: to which we get stuck in those thought loops is 100 00:05:54,600 --> 00:06:00,760 Speaker 3: the biggest pre diagnostic factor or risk factor for everything 101 00:06:00,800 --> 00:06:05,080 Speaker 3: we don't want to have in life, depression, anxiety, cognitive decline, 102 00:06:05,360 --> 00:06:10,960 Speaker 3: lack of focus, forgetfulness, substance use, eating disorders. And that 103 00:06:11,120 --> 00:06:14,360 Speaker 3: work has been done in clinical populations for a long time. 104 00:06:14,520 --> 00:06:18,719 Speaker 3: What's new is that we can see where it's happening 105 00:06:18,800 --> 00:06:20,720 Speaker 3: in the brain. We can see how the brain. This 106 00:06:20,880 --> 00:06:24,320 Speaker 3: area of the brain becomes locked down and unable to 107 00:06:24,440 --> 00:06:27,719 Speaker 3: interface with two hundred and sixty seven other areas of 108 00:06:27,720 --> 00:06:30,560 Speaker 3: the brain that we need for the kind of creativity 109 00:06:30,560 --> 00:06:33,479 Speaker 3: you bring to this show, for the rapid thinking that 110 00:06:33,520 --> 00:06:36,919 Speaker 3: we have to bring two important conversations to the ideation 111 00:06:37,200 --> 00:06:39,480 Speaker 3: for what do I want to do next with my life? 112 00:06:39,560 --> 00:06:41,440 Speaker 3: To like what do I need to say to my 113 00:06:41,520 --> 00:06:44,839 Speaker 3: teenager or my girlfriend or my spouse about this tricky 114 00:06:44,880 --> 00:06:48,360 Speaker 3: thing that we're going through. Those areas are offline and 115 00:06:48,400 --> 00:06:50,080 Speaker 3: we know it, right, don't you know it? When you're 116 00:06:50,160 --> 00:06:52,840 Speaker 3: ruminating kit you feel it like I can't get there. 117 00:06:53,680 --> 00:06:56,359 Speaker 2: It begins to it feels like a cage. You know, 118 00:06:56,600 --> 00:07:01,800 Speaker 2: it doesn't feel like a productive process. But that's one 119 00:07:01,839 --> 00:07:04,360 Speaker 2: of the things that I thought was so amazing in 120 00:07:04,400 --> 00:07:06,920 Speaker 2: the book, was like really like defining it as what 121 00:07:06,960 --> 00:07:10,040 Speaker 2: it is, this this loop that you're stuck on, and 122 00:07:10,080 --> 00:07:13,840 Speaker 2: then on some level you still keep engaging with it 123 00:07:13,880 --> 00:07:16,120 Speaker 2: because it feels like you're solving a problem. Right. 124 00:07:16,640 --> 00:07:21,560 Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a false what researchers call effort, false effort 125 00:07:21,680 --> 00:07:26,240 Speaker 3: full control, right, Like it's a seductive thing. I mean 126 00:07:26,320 --> 00:07:28,960 Speaker 3: sometimes it's almost like chewing on a tooth right they 127 00:07:29,240 --> 00:07:33,040 Speaker 3: got pulled out yesterday. It's like you keep going there 128 00:07:33,040 --> 00:07:35,160 Speaker 3: in your mouth because it's like, wait, you know, I'm 129 00:07:35,200 --> 00:07:37,920 Speaker 3: sure that if I just keep looking there, I'll be 130 00:07:37,960 --> 00:07:40,200 Speaker 3: able to get this to heal. But in fact, the 131 00:07:40,320 --> 00:07:45,200 Speaker 3: very opposite happens. We're exerting control over our environment by 132 00:07:45,280 --> 00:07:48,760 Speaker 3: thinking about it. We never get to a solution because 133 00:07:48,760 --> 00:07:52,720 Speaker 3: we've literally shut down the solution task positive areas of 134 00:07:52,760 --> 00:07:57,640 Speaker 3: our brain, and we're seduced over and over into thinking that, 135 00:07:57,840 --> 00:08:00,920 Speaker 3: you know, another hour on the couch, another half hour 136 00:08:00,960 --> 00:08:03,000 Speaker 3: in the rabbit hole, will be drived to go pick 137 00:08:03,040 --> 00:08:07,000 Speaker 3: up our kids, or you know, do the laundry. We're 138 00:08:07,040 --> 00:08:10,040 Speaker 3: going to get somewhere, but the relief never comes. We 139 00:08:10,160 --> 00:08:14,840 Speaker 3: actually just fill our body with these terrible hormones and 140 00:08:14,920 --> 00:08:18,120 Speaker 3: chemicals that are really bad for us over time and 141 00:08:18,240 --> 00:08:21,320 Speaker 3: keep us locked in the stress response, and we do 142 00:08:21,400 --> 00:08:25,240 Speaker 3: something else, We throw down more neural tracks so that 143 00:08:25,360 --> 00:08:29,400 Speaker 3: we're likely to fall back into the same thought loops 144 00:08:29,720 --> 00:08:33,079 Speaker 3: tomorrow and the next day, like a bowling ball going down. 145 00:08:33,400 --> 00:08:33,679 Speaker 3: You know. 146 00:08:34,320 --> 00:08:41,920 Speaker 2: So, yeah, so everyone struggles with this, or I guess 147 00:08:41,960 --> 00:08:44,160 Speaker 2: the better way to ask this question is what is 148 00:08:44,200 --> 00:08:46,720 Speaker 2: it like to not struggle? With rumination at least on 149 00:08:46,720 --> 00:08:49,400 Speaker 2: some level. Are there people out there conceivably that. 150 00:08:50,120 --> 00:08:53,880 Speaker 3: Do not well. We don't really know the answer to that. 151 00:08:53,920 --> 00:08:56,920 Speaker 3: What we do know is that we're doing it more 152 00:08:56,920 --> 00:09:02,040 Speaker 3: than we ever have before. On fMRI scan, neuroscientists can 153 00:09:02,160 --> 00:09:06,040 Speaker 3: show that these areas the brain are active in an 154 00:09:06,120 --> 00:09:10,400 Speaker 3: unhealthy way more of the time and also correlate to 155 00:09:10,440 --> 00:09:13,040 Speaker 3: the higher levels of distress that we're feeling and that 156 00:09:13,160 --> 00:09:16,480 Speaker 3: show up on all the epidemiological studies that are being 157 00:09:16,559 --> 00:09:19,560 Speaker 3: done about our current state of well being. And it 158 00:09:19,679 --> 00:09:22,160 Speaker 3: kind of makes sense, right because we're just out there 159 00:09:22,360 --> 00:09:26,199 Speaker 3: being blasted with this fire hose of fear and outrage 160 00:09:26,320 --> 00:09:29,200 Speaker 3: all the time. More of our lives are online, even 161 00:09:29,240 --> 00:09:33,000 Speaker 3: at work, like things are on Slack or email, and 162 00:09:33,040 --> 00:09:36,840 Speaker 3: we don't get the human context for what's really happening here. 163 00:09:37,520 --> 00:09:39,520 Speaker 3: So I do just for a second, I want to 164 00:09:39,559 --> 00:09:43,920 Speaker 3: talk about evolutionary biology. It's a little nerdy, but there's 165 00:09:43,960 --> 00:09:47,319 Speaker 3: a reason why this is a survival response gone wrong, 166 00:09:47,400 --> 00:09:49,240 Speaker 3: and we have to kind of step way way way 167 00:09:49,360 --> 00:09:54,560 Speaker 3: back in time through evolutionary biology. So a long time ago, 168 00:09:54,640 --> 00:09:57,400 Speaker 3: when we were sitting around the communal fire, if people 169 00:09:57,440 --> 00:09:59,559 Speaker 3: were poking fun at you or rolling their eyes that 170 00:09:59,640 --> 00:10:03,640 Speaker 3: you wrot elbowing each other and giggling. This was like 171 00:10:03,679 --> 00:10:07,200 Speaker 3: a really dangerous proposition because it meant that you, and 172 00:10:07,320 --> 00:10:10,160 Speaker 3: not only you, but your gene pool, which we care 173 00:10:10,200 --> 00:10:13,760 Speaker 3: a lot about, could be set at the edge of 174 00:10:13,840 --> 00:10:16,600 Speaker 3: the tribe. We could be not the first to get 175 00:10:16,640 --> 00:10:19,719 Speaker 3: the good tubers or meet on the fire. If you're 176 00:10:19,760 --> 00:10:22,200 Speaker 3: set all the way outside the tribe because you've been 177 00:10:22,280 --> 00:10:27,680 Speaker 3: socially or emotionally ostracized, you are in big trouble. You'll 178 00:10:27,720 --> 00:10:30,520 Speaker 3: be picked off by you know, a predator or a 179 00:10:30,559 --> 00:10:33,880 Speaker 3: marauding tribe, or at the mercy of the elements, the snow, 180 00:10:33,880 --> 00:10:36,400 Speaker 3: of the ray and the sun, you and your gene 181 00:10:36,440 --> 00:10:40,079 Speaker 3: pool are gone. So here's the thing, and I love 182 00:10:40,120 --> 00:10:45,880 Speaker 3: this about evolutionary biology. Our immune systems evolved over time 183 00:10:46,400 --> 00:10:52,760 Speaker 3: to see the most threatening type of interaction as one 184 00:10:52,840 --> 00:10:56,840 Speaker 3: in which we are socially or emotionally dismissed or dissed 185 00:10:57,280 --> 00:11:01,440 Speaker 3: or disregarded, or given a sense that we do not 186 00:11:01,640 --> 00:11:05,439 Speaker 3: matter and we do not belong to the people who 187 00:11:05,480 --> 00:11:10,240 Speaker 3: matter to us. As soon as we get those signals, 188 00:11:10,679 --> 00:11:17,160 Speaker 3: our immune system goes into overdrive to fight and to 189 00:11:17,360 --> 00:11:21,080 Speaker 3: prepare for physical harm. That's why when you get caught 190 00:11:21,080 --> 00:11:24,280 Speaker 3: in your thought loops, do you feel like, oh I 191 00:11:24,320 --> 00:11:27,559 Speaker 3: am getting more contracted? Like do you feel the attention 192 00:11:27,720 --> 00:11:28,400 Speaker 3: in your body? 193 00:11:28,920 --> 00:11:29,160 Speaker 2: Yeah? 194 00:11:29,200 --> 00:11:34,000 Speaker 3: Absolutely, that's why because we are primed to go into 195 00:11:34,040 --> 00:11:37,160 Speaker 3: this survival response. And you probably know from interviewing so 196 00:11:37,200 --> 00:11:41,559 Speaker 3: many interesting people, we are really good humans, are really 197 00:11:41,640 --> 00:11:44,800 Speaker 3: really good at going into threat responses. What are we 198 00:11:44,920 --> 00:11:47,920 Speaker 3: terrible at? We are just terrible at getting out of them. 199 00:11:49,720 --> 00:11:51,440 Speaker 2: Now, I want to come back to something you mentioned 200 00:11:51,440 --> 00:11:54,480 Speaker 2: earlier about how we're ruminating more now than ever, And 201 00:11:56,120 --> 00:11:58,679 Speaker 2: to be clear, like you're when you say that, you 202 00:11:58,679 --> 00:12:00,640 Speaker 2: mean not just like oh in our mind an age, 203 00:12:00,640 --> 00:12:03,800 Speaker 2: but likest like in the last few years, correct, like 204 00:12:04,520 --> 00:12:06,440 Speaker 2: fairly recently, we've seen this uptick. 205 00:12:06,679 --> 00:12:09,240 Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right. And so people started looking at the 206 00:12:09,240 --> 00:12:14,640 Speaker 3: default mode network more closely, sort of before and then 207 00:12:15,240 --> 00:12:19,480 Speaker 3: during and then after the pandemic, and people were looking 208 00:12:19,559 --> 00:12:22,880 Speaker 3: for rumination, they were looking for to stress levels, right, 209 00:12:22,960 --> 00:12:25,920 Speaker 3: because this is a real public health crisis but also 210 00:12:26,080 --> 00:12:29,199 Speaker 3: a terrible mental health crisis. We saw people's mental health 211 00:12:29,240 --> 00:12:35,000 Speaker 3: really deteriorate across all age groups in our population and globally, 212 00:12:35,640 --> 00:12:38,280 Speaker 3: so researchers were looking at this and one of the 213 00:12:38,320 --> 00:12:42,439 Speaker 3: by products that they found was that they were seeing 214 00:12:42,640 --> 00:12:48,360 Speaker 3: notable alterations in the function of the default mode network 215 00:12:48,559 --> 00:12:52,480 Speaker 3: over this five to six year span, and so that 216 00:12:53,520 --> 00:12:57,440 Speaker 3: other researchers were running studies to see if this over 217 00:12:57,559 --> 00:13:01,000 Speaker 3: activation of the default mode network was tied to rumination, 218 00:13:01,600 --> 00:13:04,360 Speaker 3: and the answer was yes, it was also tied to 219 00:13:06,000 --> 00:13:11,720 Speaker 3: poorer mental health outcomes and higher levels of reported distress. 220 00:13:12,200 --> 00:13:15,320 Speaker 3: So it makes sense, like, look around us, right, we 221 00:13:15,320 --> 00:13:20,120 Speaker 3: are facing climate change, school shootings, like I said, political 222 00:13:20,240 --> 00:13:25,000 Speaker 3: you know, political chaos, online outrage, and you spend a 223 00:13:25,000 --> 00:13:27,040 Speaker 3: lot of your time online. I have to spend a 224 00:13:27,040 --> 00:13:32,240 Speaker 3: lot of my time online. It's literally rigged to make 225 00:13:32,360 --> 00:13:37,520 Speaker 3: us feel this sense of social and emotional threat and fear. 226 00:13:38,040 --> 00:13:41,600 Speaker 3: So it's reavying us up into a state of rumination 227 00:13:43,080 --> 00:13:46,480 Speaker 3: while we remove the face to face time that helps 228 00:13:46,520 --> 00:13:50,800 Speaker 3: to reassure us and tell us neurobiologically that we are 229 00:13:50,920 --> 00:13:55,960 Speaker 3: safe and connected. So it's really no surprise that we're 230 00:13:56,040 --> 00:13:59,520 Speaker 3: in this state. It's just I mean, look at one 231 00:13:59,520 --> 00:14:01,479 Speaker 3: of the things I looked at when I was researching 232 00:14:01,520 --> 00:14:05,520 Speaker 3: the book was road rage. Road Rage is a sign 233 00:14:05,600 --> 00:14:09,160 Speaker 3: of rumination, Like what's that asshole doing over there in 234 00:14:09,160 --> 00:14:11,640 Speaker 3: that lane and not being able to let go of it. 235 00:14:12,640 --> 00:14:15,640 Speaker 3: Traffic fatalities are at their highest rate in twenty years, 236 00:14:15,840 --> 00:14:19,200 Speaker 3: so we see signs of this everywhere. And I really 237 00:14:19,280 --> 00:14:21,440 Speaker 3: argue in the book what a different world it would 238 00:14:21,440 --> 00:14:24,960 Speaker 3: be if we weren't stuck in our thought loobs, if 239 00:14:25,000 --> 00:14:28,840 Speaker 3: we weren't stuck in the same storylines, and we could 240 00:14:28,920 --> 00:14:31,520 Speaker 3: come out of that reomen of state and go into 241 00:14:31,640 --> 00:14:36,160 Speaker 3: the upside of rumination, which were that creativity and connectedness 242 00:14:36,160 --> 00:14:38,000 Speaker 3: that we all long for. 243 00:14:47,720 --> 00:14:49,440 Speaker 2: Yeah, in the book, you you, of course walk us 244 00:14:49,480 --> 00:14:55,080 Speaker 2: through a number of different techniques and different methods physical 245 00:14:55,760 --> 00:14:59,720 Speaker 2: and internalized to help deal with this, to spiral out 246 00:14:59,720 --> 00:15:03,000 Speaker 2: of it, as you put it. And I know that 247 00:15:03,160 --> 00:15:07,240 Speaker 2: you yourself are a yoga practitioner and your practice meditation. 248 00:15:08,480 --> 00:15:11,400 Speaker 2: Like one thing that I was thinking about, especially when 249 00:15:11,400 --> 00:15:13,640 Speaker 2: reading the earlier portions of the book, was more, you 250 00:15:13,640 --> 00:15:17,240 Speaker 2: know about sort of outlying the problem I was thinking about, 251 00:15:17,320 --> 00:15:20,080 Speaker 2: like when I go into a yoga class, you know, 252 00:15:20,240 --> 00:15:23,160 Speaker 2: when I'm get away from a screen, and you know, 253 00:15:23,160 --> 00:15:26,560 Speaker 2: getting away from news feeds and getting into this place 254 00:15:26,600 --> 00:15:29,280 Speaker 2: that I see as a safe space among you people 255 00:15:29,560 --> 00:15:33,560 Speaker 2: that I feel comfortable with, and yet I'll spend like 256 00:15:34,080 --> 00:15:38,160 Speaker 2: maybe half the practice turning things off like it's it's 257 00:15:38,160 --> 00:15:41,680 Speaker 2: like it's still sort of like the loop is still 258 00:15:41,840 --> 00:15:45,080 Speaker 2: cycling down for like half the class, and it almost 259 00:15:45,160 --> 00:15:48,920 Speaker 2: always the class is almost always effective in calming things 260 00:15:48,960 --> 00:15:51,360 Speaker 2: down and clearing the mind. But it can be like 261 00:15:51,440 --> 00:15:53,440 Speaker 2: looking back on it, it's like it really, I guess 262 00:15:53,640 --> 00:15:57,720 Speaker 2: speaks to the strength of rumination that it takes so 263 00:15:57,800 --> 00:16:00,600 Speaker 2: much effort at times to just actually it off. 264 00:16:01,320 --> 00:16:04,120 Speaker 3: Well, that makes all the sense in the world, because 265 00:16:04,280 --> 00:16:08,760 Speaker 3: you're trying to apply a skill through your body to 266 00:16:08,880 --> 00:16:12,480 Speaker 3: get into a place non ruminative, or to use the 267 00:16:12,560 --> 00:16:15,120 Speaker 3: language I use in the book instead of spiraling down 268 00:16:15,160 --> 00:16:19,240 Speaker 3: to viral up right, and you're using your body to 269 00:16:19,360 --> 00:16:22,000 Speaker 3: do that. But one of the things that I found 270 00:16:21,800 --> 00:16:26,480 Speaker 3: in researching rumination is we need to use our brain 271 00:16:26,720 --> 00:16:30,520 Speaker 3: and our body together. So it's kind of like when 272 00:16:30,520 --> 00:16:33,880 Speaker 3: the body and the brain agree that we're safe, that 273 00:16:34,000 --> 00:16:36,360 Speaker 3: is a much easier way to escape our thought loops. 274 00:16:36,400 --> 00:16:38,800 Speaker 3: But the other thing I found is that, well, a 275 00:16:38,800 --> 00:16:42,520 Speaker 3: couple things I want to say, Rumination is not a 276 00:16:42,600 --> 00:16:47,480 Speaker 3: character flaw. It is truly a part of the human condition. 277 00:16:47,680 --> 00:16:51,840 Speaker 3: It separates us from other animals. It is the higher 278 00:16:51,960 --> 00:16:55,520 Speaker 3: order brain that can do threat detection, but unfortunately in 279 00:16:55,640 --> 00:16:59,320 Speaker 3: humans get lost in it and unable to escape. So 280 00:16:59,560 --> 00:17:01,800 Speaker 3: I also found that about a third of us are 281 00:17:01,880 --> 00:17:05,320 Speaker 3: kind of ashamed of it, like we and most of us, 282 00:17:05,440 --> 00:17:09,160 Speaker 3: the majority of us, do not talk about it with anyone. 283 00:17:09,720 --> 00:17:13,840 Speaker 3: You don't stand in the kitchen making dinner with your 284 00:17:13,880 --> 00:17:18,520 Speaker 3: partner or your friend going like you know what. I like, 285 00:17:18,720 --> 00:17:21,080 Speaker 3: six hours got sucked out of my day to day 286 00:17:21,160 --> 00:17:23,560 Speaker 3: because I could not stop thinking. You might say, this 287 00:17:23,600 --> 00:17:28,359 Speaker 3: is bugging me, but we don't walk around admitting to 288 00:17:28,480 --> 00:17:32,040 Speaker 3: the enormity of the problem. So it makes perfect sense 289 00:17:32,119 --> 00:17:35,040 Speaker 3: that it would take you twenty five minutes of a 290 00:17:35,119 --> 00:17:39,920 Speaker 3: fifty minute yoga class to bring it down. We don't 291 00:17:39,960 --> 00:17:42,919 Speaker 3: have tools. First, you have to go through kind of 292 00:17:42,960 --> 00:17:46,399 Speaker 3: like the layer of self criticism about doing it in 293 00:17:46,440 --> 00:17:49,080 Speaker 3: the first place, Like, oh my god, here I am 294 00:17:49,119 --> 00:17:51,919 Speaker 3: in my yoga class and I'm still thinking about what 295 00:17:52,040 --> 00:17:55,120 Speaker 3: so and so said at dinner last night. We can 296 00:17:55,200 --> 00:17:58,840 Speaker 3: drop that because everyone in the class is doing it right. 297 00:17:59,680 --> 00:18:03,840 Speaker 3: Every one around us is doing the same thing, and 298 00:18:03,920 --> 00:18:07,080 Speaker 3: we're all ruminating about the same thing. Robin, this is 299 00:18:07,119 --> 00:18:09,800 Speaker 3: the tender thing beneath all the noise and between all 300 00:18:09,840 --> 00:18:12,720 Speaker 3: the you know, beneath the writing and the book publishing. 301 00:18:13,160 --> 00:18:15,240 Speaker 3: This is the thing that struck me over and over. 302 00:18:15,600 --> 00:18:18,399 Speaker 3: We all ruminate about the same thing, whether we matter 303 00:18:18,720 --> 00:18:24,920 Speaker 3: and belong to the people and places that matter to us. 304 00:18:24,960 --> 00:18:31,560 Speaker 3: And our ruminations are begging us not to just cut 305 00:18:31,600 --> 00:18:37,000 Speaker 3: them off and feel bad about them. Our ruminations, our 306 00:18:37,040 --> 00:18:41,480 Speaker 3: signal fires from the past. They are asking us to 307 00:18:41,520 --> 00:18:46,760 Speaker 3: see them, accept them, name them, and to tend to 308 00:18:46,920 --> 00:18:51,040 Speaker 3: those stories that are coming up for us over and 309 00:18:51,119 --> 00:18:58,360 Speaker 3: over again, because we have not fully emotionally processed something 310 00:18:59,440 --> 00:19:02,760 Speaker 3: that's come up for us. So what I found is 311 00:19:02,760 --> 00:19:05,720 Speaker 3: that you load the same reels and the same stories 312 00:19:05,760 --> 00:19:09,440 Speaker 3: over and over again, you think you're getting somewhere right. 313 00:19:09,480 --> 00:19:13,040 Speaker 3: We talked about that earlier, But rumination is actually a 314 00:19:13,080 --> 00:19:19,040 Speaker 3: form of avoidance. We are trying to exert control over 315 00:19:19,200 --> 00:19:23,600 Speaker 3: situation or interaction or relationship or work issue, or a 316 00:19:23,680 --> 00:19:29,880 Speaker 3: sense of status or esteem or belonging without ever allowing 317 00:19:29,920 --> 00:19:34,399 Speaker 3: ourselves to feel the emotions beneath the story. And so 318 00:19:34,680 --> 00:19:36,840 Speaker 3: of course I had to develop a technique for that. 319 00:19:39,720 --> 00:19:43,120 Speaker 2: Yeah, let's get into some of the techniques. You cover 320 00:19:43,359 --> 00:19:47,400 Speaker 2: a number of these different exercises and exercises and methods 321 00:19:48,119 --> 00:19:52,359 Speaker 2: to overcome or work through rumination to some degree. You know, 322 00:19:52,600 --> 00:19:54,399 Speaker 2: we obviously can't roll through all of them here the 323 00:19:54,920 --> 00:19:57,760 Speaker 2: listeners should pick up the book, but I know you 324 00:19:58,000 --> 00:20:00,840 Speaker 2: also deal with these in workshops. I was wondering, what 325 00:20:01,119 --> 00:20:03,560 Speaker 2: are maybe a couple of your favorites that you would 326 00:20:03,640 --> 00:20:06,479 Speaker 2: like to share with listeners that you think can easily 327 00:20:06,520 --> 00:20:09,160 Speaker 2: be shared through audio. 328 00:20:09,960 --> 00:20:15,640 Speaker 3: So I think that the most useful and helpful technique 329 00:20:15,680 --> 00:20:19,560 Speaker 3: that I found working with audiences and individuals is the 330 00:20:19,560 --> 00:20:24,119 Speaker 3: missed framework, which is based on our new understanding of 331 00:20:24,160 --> 00:20:29,600 Speaker 3: how the default mode network generates these three distinct experiences 332 00:20:30,359 --> 00:20:34,320 Speaker 3: when it gives rise to our most recursive and bothersome 333 00:20:34,920 --> 00:20:39,040 Speaker 3: thought reels. And so are you ever willing to be 334 00:20:39,080 --> 00:20:40,560 Speaker 3: a guinea pig on your own show? 335 00:20:40,960 --> 00:20:41,120 Speaker 1: Oh? 336 00:20:41,160 --> 00:20:41,720 Speaker 2: Absolutely? 337 00:20:41,840 --> 00:20:45,400 Speaker 3: Okay, excellent, I thought so. So I wanted to check, 338 00:20:46,280 --> 00:20:49,040 Speaker 3: all right, So I guess what I want to ask 339 00:20:49,119 --> 00:20:52,600 Speaker 3: you is is there something and you don't have to 340 00:20:52,600 --> 00:20:55,080 Speaker 3: share the details, but you're welcome to that's totally up 341 00:20:55,080 --> 00:20:58,680 Speaker 3: to you. Is there something that's just been really sticky 342 00:20:59,119 --> 00:21:02,480 Speaker 3: and a thought reel that just keeps loading up for 343 00:21:02,640 --> 00:21:07,080 Speaker 3: you a lot in the last day or week or months. 344 00:21:08,040 --> 00:21:09,960 Speaker 2: Oh? Absolutely, I'll keep it to myself. 345 00:21:10,160 --> 00:21:13,520 Speaker 3: Okay, you're so human. Yes, welcome to the human race. 346 00:21:13,960 --> 00:21:18,600 Speaker 3: This means you are not a cow. So all right, 347 00:21:18,800 --> 00:21:21,240 Speaker 3: So it's going through your head. And what we're going 348 00:21:21,320 --> 00:21:23,320 Speaker 3: to do is we're going to practice the mis framework. 349 00:21:23,440 --> 00:21:27,400 Speaker 3: So I mentioned earlier that the default mode network gives 350 00:21:27,480 --> 00:21:32,560 Speaker 3: rise to our ruminations, and one area gives rise to 351 00:21:32,880 --> 00:21:36,399 Speaker 3: our mental movies and mental images. One gives rise to 352 00:21:36,400 --> 00:21:42,000 Speaker 3: our intense interior emotions. One gives rise to our somatic sensations. 353 00:21:42,960 --> 00:21:44,359 Speaker 3: And what we're going to do is we're going to 354 00:21:44,400 --> 00:21:47,480 Speaker 3: go through the misframework, which I called MISS because of course, 355 00:21:47,520 --> 00:21:49,520 Speaker 3: when we're ruminating and we're lost in a fog and 356 00:21:49,560 --> 00:21:52,480 Speaker 3: we want to get out, we desperately want to get out, 357 00:21:53,280 --> 00:21:56,680 Speaker 3: and also because it works really well as an acronym, 358 00:21:56,720 --> 00:22:01,560 Speaker 3: and writers love acronym. So m is obviously for mental movies, 359 00:22:01,720 --> 00:22:05,199 Speaker 3: eyes for intense emotions, as is for somatic sensations, and 360 00:22:05,280 --> 00:22:08,000 Speaker 3: tea is for tying it all together. Now, I want 361 00:22:08,000 --> 00:22:11,440 Speaker 3: to start with your mental movies, your mental imagery. Usually 362 00:22:11,600 --> 00:22:14,600 Speaker 3: these are reels, as we said, we've loaded many times 363 00:22:14,600 --> 00:22:17,800 Speaker 3: across a lifetime, and they start to echo the same 364 00:22:17,840 --> 00:22:22,159 Speaker 3: thing for most of us, and usually these mental movies 365 00:22:22,200 --> 00:22:24,400 Speaker 3: tell us a little bit of a story about ourselves. 366 00:22:24,400 --> 00:22:27,760 Speaker 3: It's usually believes or stories in which we're not coming 367 00:22:27,800 --> 00:22:32,680 Speaker 3: out on top right, And so generally that the easiest 368 00:22:32,680 --> 00:22:35,520 Speaker 3: way to get into the misframework is to start with 369 00:22:35,600 --> 00:22:38,879 Speaker 3: mental imagery and kind of start with a sentence like, 370 00:22:39,320 --> 00:22:42,400 Speaker 3: here're the familiar reels I've been playing a thousand times 371 00:22:42,480 --> 00:22:46,000 Speaker 3: and naming them in this way, here's my old story 372 00:22:46,040 --> 00:22:49,679 Speaker 3: of how and it can be anything, And let me 373 00:22:49,720 --> 00:22:52,760 Speaker 3: tell you this. I can give you examples that I 374 00:22:52,800 --> 00:22:56,080 Speaker 3: will do, but the language that comes from your brain, 375 00:22:56,240 --> 00:22:59,440 Speaker 3: rob is the language that your brain will pay attention 376 00:22:59,560 --> 00:23:03,880 Speaker 3: to to exit rumination. So it could start with here 377 00:23:04,280 --> 00:23:06,840 Speaker 3: is my old story of how people dismiss me, or 378 00:23:06,880 --> 00:23:09,120 Speaker 3: here's my old story of how my voice isn't heard, 379 00:23:09,200 --> 00:23:12,280 Speaker 3: or here's my old story of how no one listens 380 00:23:12,280 --> 00:23:13,720 Speaker 3: to what I have to say, or how I always 381 00:23:13,800 --> 00:23:15,640 Speaker 3: screw it up or how I miss it or get 382 00:23:15,680 --> 00:23:18,480 Speaker 3: it wrong. Does it matter what I say? It only 383 00:23:18,480 --> 00:23:20,920 Speaker 3: matters what you say. So can you start with them 384 00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:22,280 Speaker 3: for mental movies? 385 00:23:23,240 --> 00:23:29,520 Speaker 2: Okay? Yeah, and do I say it out loud or 386 00:23:29,600 --> 00:23:30,960 Speaker 2: I just say it out loud. 387 00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:33,639 Speaker 3: I'm sorry, but no one will know what you're ruminating about, 388 00:23:33,760 --> 00:23:36,400 Speaker 3: and I guarantee you that you're going to sound just 389 00:23:36,480 --> 00:23:39,120 Speaker 3: like everyone else who's ruminating and give them a lot 390 00:23:39,119 --> 00:23:40,200 Speaker 3: of relief, honestly. 391 00:23:40,240 --> 00:23:45,080 Speaker 2: Okay, so yeah, I'm mentally picturing it right now. I'm 392 00:23:45,359 --> 00:23:48,800 Speaker 2: pitmentally picturing the some of the images that have been 393 00:23:48,800 --> 00:23:49,960 Speaker 2: playing through my head recently. 394 00:23:50,400 --> 00:23:54,400 Speaker 3: And so start with here's my story of how people 395 00:23:55,000 --> 00:23:56,760 Speaker 3: X and that is the best way to start the 396 00:23:56,800 --> 00:23:59,680 Speaker 3: MYS framework. Here's my old story of how people. 397 00:24:01,640 --> 00:24:06,240 Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, here is my old story of how yeah, 398 00:24:06,320 --> 00:24:09,800 Speaker 2: people people view me. 399 00:24:10,280 --> 00:24:15,560 Speaker 3: Yes, okay, all right, that's a story probably not true, 400 00:24:15,800 --> 00:24:17,800 Speaker 3: but this is what our brains do to us. So 401 00:24:17,880 --> 00:24:21,639 Speaker 3: here's my old story of how people view me, which 402 00:24:21,920 --> 00:24:25,520 Speaker 3: makes me feel. Now we're going to eye for intense emotion, 403 00:24:25,680 --> 00:24:27,639 Speaker 3: and if you want, it can be very helpful for 404 00:24:27,680 --> 00:24:32,159 Speaker 3: your brain to actually name how you think people view you. 405 00:24:32,320 --> 00:24:34,000 Speaker 3: And you might not want to do that in a 406 00:24:34,040 --> 00:24:37,920 Speaker 3: public forum, right, so we'll skip over that. But if 407 00:24:37,960 --> 00:24:41,320 Speaker 3: you're doing it at a home in your own time, if 408 00:24:41,359 --> 00:24:43,960 Speaker 3: I were doing it, I might say something like, here's 409 00:24:44,000 --> 00:24:48,480 Speaker 3: my old story of how people view me, that my 410 00:24:48,600 --> 00:24:52,000 Speaker 3: voice doesn't matter or something like that. So you want 411 00:24:52,040 --> 00:24:56,239 Speaker 3: to be really specific because that granular specificity is going 412 00:24:56,280 --> 00:25:00,120 Speaker 3: to really help your brain know that you're seeing the story, 413 00:25:00,760 --> 00:25:03,840 Speaker 3: and that's very important here. So now let's go to 414 00:25:03,920 --> 00:25:06,320 Speaker 3: intense emotions. So for you, here's a my old story 415 00:25:06,320 --> 00:25:09,119 Speaker 3: of how people view me, which is X for you, 416 00:25:10,680 --> 00:25:18,920 Speaker 3: which makes me feel and it can be a shame, scared, isolated, rageful, angry. 417 00:25:19,240 --> 00:25:21,439 Speaker 3: So start from the top, here's my old story of 418 00:25:21,440 --> 00:25:24,040 Speaker 3: how people view me, and then add in the emotion 419 00:25:24,160 --> 00:25:26,240 Speaker 3: and if you want, add in how it feels to 420 00:25:26,240 --> 00:25:28,680 Speaker 3: be viewed, the way that you feel you're viewed. 421 00:25:29,240 --> 00:25:32,960 Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, here is the story of how people view me, 422 00:25:33,320 --> 00:25:35,880 Speaker 2: or how I think people view me, and it makes 423 00:25:35,960 --> 00:25:36,760 Speaker 2: me feel anxious. 424 00:25:37,280 --> 00:25:40,600 Speaker 3: Yes, excellent, And now we're going to add an S 425 00:25:40,680 --> 00:25:46,400 Speaker 3: for somatic sensations, so you're rolling the reels and you're 426 00:25:46,920 --> 00:25:49,760 Speaker 3: acknowledging the anxiety. So now you're going to go here's 427 00:25:49,800 --> 00:25:52,960 Speaker 3: a mild story of how people view me, and there's 428 00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:56,760 Speaker 3: a story in there. Make sure that you privately acknowledge 429 00:25:56,760 --> 00:26:01,400 Speaker 3: that story. Whatever it is I suck or whatever which 430 00:26:01,480 --> 00:26:08,159 Speaker 3: makes me feel anxious, and my what part of your 431 00:26:08,200 --> 00:26:10,040 Speaker 3: body do you feel it in? You can start this 432 00:26:10,160 --> 00:26:12,399 Speaker 3: by like scanning down from the top of your heads. 433 00:26:12,440 --> 00:26:14,120 Speaker 3: Some people feel it in the back of their head, 434 00:26:14,200 --> 00:26:18,480 Speaker 3: their shoulders, their solar plexus, their gut churning, their heart pounding, 435 00:26:18,520 --> 00:26:19,880 Speaker 3: their whole body contracting. 436 00:26:20,000 --> 00:26:23,359 Speaker 2: You can feel it in your whole body, okay, And 437 00:26:23,400 --> 00:26:25,520 Speaker 2: I just identify where I feel it, yep, And you're 438 00:26:25,600 --> 00:26:26,560 Speaker 2: to start from the top. 439 00:26:26,680 --> 00:26:28,520 Speaker 3: Here's my old story. 440 00:26:28,600 --> 00:26:32,159 Speaker 2: Here's my old story about how people view me. It 441 00:26:32,240 --> 00:26:37,119 Speaker 2: makes me feel anxious, and I feel this kind of 442 00:26:37,160 --> 00:26:40,320 Speaker 2: in the space between my stomach and my heart. 443 00:26:41,080 --> 00:26:44,879 Speaker 3: Absolutely excellent. You just did the missed framework and you 444 00:26:44,960 --> 00:26:47,800 Speaker 3: tied it together. So I want to ask you, and 445 00:26:48,119 --> 00:26:50,720 Speaker 3: without any details, how old is this story? 446 00:26:52,680 --> 00:26:55,159 Speaker 2: This? Oh, this version of I guess you know, like 447 00:26:55,200 --> 00:26:56,679 Speaker 2: a lot of these things, we have different versions. 448 00:26:56,720 --> 00:26:59,399 Speaker 3: We have a punrative these, but you're applying it to 449 00:26:59,480 --> 00:27:02,400 Speaker 3: something that happened recently or that is kind of haunting 450 00:27:02,480 --> 00:27:05,560 Speaker 3: you and our ruminating stories, says haunt us kind of 451 00:27:05,560 --> 00:27:08,520 Speaker 3: like little small ghosts the trail after us and you're 452 00:27:08,560 --> 00:27:10,840 Speaker 3: trying to turn around and kind of hug the ghost. 453 00:27:11,000 --> 00:27:13,840 Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, I'd say this this is about a year old. 454 00:27:13,720 --> 00:27:17,680 Speaker 3: Ghost, okay, a year old ghost okay, And having done 455 00:27:17,680 --> 00:27:20,840 Speaker 3: the miss framework, does it feel like it's a little 456 00:27:21,040 --> 00:27:24,919 Speaker 3: less spinning inside the center of your brain and just 457 00:27:25,040 --> 00:27:27,439 Speaker 3: maybe even two inches outside of you. 458 00:27:28,520 --> 00:27:31,919 Speaker 2: It really does like it really kind of it. You know, 459 00:27:32,320 --> 00:27:34,560 Speaker 2: now I'm thinking of it as a ghost, so kind 460 00:27:34,600 --> 00:27:37,920 Speaker 2: now I'm kind of adding that extra layer of visualization 461 00:27:38,040 --> 00:27:40,720 Speaker 2: to it. But I do kind of feel like it 462 00:27:40,880 --> 00:27:43,200 Speaker 2: was in here and now, yeah, it's just a little 463 00:27:43,200 --> 00:27:46,040 Speaker 2: bit outside. You know, it may snap back in, but 464 00:27:46,119 --> 00:27:47,399 Speaker 2: I'm a little bit removed from it. 465 00:27:47,440 --> 00:27:50,119 Speaker 3: And you know, I saw you smile at the end 466 00:27:50,200 --> 00:27:53,399 Speaker 3: of the miss framework. You went from anxious face, which 467 00:27:53,440 --> 00:27:57,239 Speaker 3: is normal when we're trying to like thinking, you know, 468 00:27:57,280 --> 00:28:00,359 Speaker 3: what is this inside me that I'm carrying and have 469 00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:04,480 Speaker 3: carried for so long into you smiled at the end, 470 00:28:04,680 --> 00:28:08,240 Speaker 3: and that is your brain. And what happened inside your brain. 471 00:28:08,800 --> 00:28:14,240 Speaker 3: This isn't just like motivational you know, fluff people. This 472 00:28:14,280 --> 00:28:17,800 Speaker 3: is neuroscience. What happened in your brain on fMRI scans 473 00:28:18,040 --> 00:28:24,800 Speaker 3: is that you stopped the closed circuit. You stopped the storyline, 474 00:28:24,960 --> 00:28:30,359 Speaker 3: and your brain literally stopped its closed circuit. It's lockdown loop. 475 00:28:30,840 --> 00:28:34,239 Speaker 3: And now your brain is lighting up and interfacing with 476 00:28:34,280 --> 00:28:36,840 Speaker 3: what we call the connectome of the brain, which is 477 00:28:36,880 --> 00:28:39,800 Speaker 3: two hundred and sixty seven areas that allow you to 478 00:28:39,840 --> 00:28:44,600 Speaker 3: go into ideation and creativity and awareness, and you went, wait, 479 00:28:44,920 --> 00:28:47,719 Speaker 3: I see this. I see this as a story I've 480 00:28:47,800 --> 00:28:52,080 Speaker 3: been carrying. And maybe, if we're lucky, when we practice 481 00:28:52,120 --> 00:28:55,600 Speaker 3: the misframework, we not only exit the mind drama set 482 00:28:55,640 --> 00:28:58,600 Speaker 3: it outside of us just a little bit, but we 483 00:28:58,720 --> 00:29:02,160 Speaker 3: also kind of go like, wait a minute, this is 484 00:29:02,200 --> 00:29:05,800 Speaker 3: a story that maybe I don't want anymore. Maybe it's 485 00:29:05,880 --> 00:29:09,120 Speaker 3: not mine to carry. Maybe it came to me externally 486 00:29:09,400 --> 00:29:12,520 Speaker 3: at a time when I didn't have the flexibility to 487 00:29:12,840 --> 00:29:15,600 Speaker 3: question it or take it on, especially if it started 488 00:29:15,600 --> 00:29:17,920 Speaker 3: when you were a child, as it does for many 489 00:29:17,920 --> 00:29:21,800 Speaker 3: of us, And we get a moment where we get 490 00:29:21,880 --> 00:29:26,280 Speaker 3: to hear how we truly feel. And from there, what 491 00:29:26,360 --> 00:29:29,640 Speaker 3: I've seen in so many individuals is a kind of 492 00:29:29,720 --> 00:29:36,000 Speaker 3: tender awareness, a sort of emotionable compassion for ourselves and 493 00:29:36,080 --> 00:29:39,880 Speaker 3: what we've been putting ourselves through. And when we practice 494 00:29:39,880 --> 00:29:45,080 Speaker 3: this over time, in different situations with different individuals or 495 00:29:45,120 --> 00:29:49,040 Speaker 3: tricky people in our lives, what happens is we start 496 00:29:49,040 --> 00:29:51,000 Speaker 3: to find our own voice. And I did not know 497 00:29:51,080 --> 00:29:53,120 Speaker 3: this going into the book, but what I found in 498 00:29:53,240 --> 00:29:56,760 Speaker 3: working with people for two years is that people who 499 00:29:56,840 --> 00:29:59,959 Speaker 3: had not been able to voice themselves in these difficul 500 00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:04,760 Speaker 3: called interactions are in difficult relationships. They started to hear like, Okay, 501 00:30:04,760 --> 00:30:07,760 Speaker 3: what do I need? Like what am I not tending to? 502 00:30:08,800 --> 00:30:11,840 Speaker 3: What am I exiling here? What am I afraid to say? 503 00:30:12,640 --> 00:30:16,440 Speaker 3: What am I afraid to do? And relationships got better. 504 00:30:16,840 --> 00:30:21,160 Speaker 3: Some fell across the wayside because this process made it 505 00:30:21,200 --> 00:30:24,760 Speaker 3: clear that they were returning to the same hurtful dynamic 506 00:30:24,880 --> 00:30:27,240 Speaker 3: over and over and it couldn't be changed. But ninety 507 00:30:27,320 --> 00:30:31,400 Speaker 3: nine percent of a time, relationships got better because people 508 00:30:32,040 --> 00:30:34,960 Speaker 3: found voice. And that is something I want people to remember. 509 00:30:35,600 --> 00:30:37,800 Speaker 3: When you are in your thought loops, when you load 510 00:30:37,840 --> 00:30:43,280 Speaker 3: the same reels over and over, you lose agency, you 511 00:30:43,320 --> 00:30:47,200 Speaker 3: lose your voice, you lose your inner knowing of what 512 00:30:47,320 --> 00:30:48,640 Speaker 3: it is that you really need. 513 00:30:49,360 --> 00:30:53,520 Speaker 2: Wow. Yeah, there was one of the lists of questions 514 00:30:53,520 --> 00:30:56,360 Speaker 2: that you knew outline in the book, one of them 515 00:30:56,360 --> 00:30:58,920 Speaker 2: that really caught my attention when I was going through 516 00:30:58,920 --> 00:31:00,640 Speaker 2: the book, and you know, part of it. I'm going 517 00:31:00,680 --> 00:31:02,840 Speaker 2: through the book to you know, to make sure I 518 00:31:02,880 --> 00:31:05,120 Speaker 2: have questions in mind and so forth, and then I'm 519 00:31:05,160 --> 00:31:07,480 Speaker 2: prepared for the interview. But one of them was like 520 00:31:07,560 --> 00:31:09,480 Speaker 2: do I want to feel like this all the time, 521 00:31:10,400 --> 00:31:13,680 Speaker 2: which is like just on its own, isolated, is such 522 00:31:13,720 --> 00:31:17,640 Speaker 2: a an empowering little nugget, you know that kind of 523 00:31:17,680 --> 00:31:20,280 Speaker 2: like wakes you out and makes you realize, oh yeah, 524 00:31:20,400 --> 00:31:23,240 Speaker 2: maybe I don't and oh yeah, maybe I do have 525 00:31:23,320 --> 00:31:26,120 Speaker 2: agency over this. I don't have to just be stuck 526 00:31:26,120 --> 00:31:27,400 Speaker 2: in this particular thought loop. 527 00:31:27,760 --> 00:31:31,320 Speaker 3: Yeah, and maybe there's something that when I'm stuck in 528 00:31:31,360 --> 00:31:36,800 Speaker 3: this thought loop, I'm actually repressing or avoiding about the 529 00:31:36,880 --> 00:31:40,160 Speaker 3: agency that I do have. Like maybe this is going 530 00:31:40,200 --> 00:31:44,719 Speaker 3: to be hard to one woman and I interviewed for 531 00:31:44,800 --> 00:31:47,400 Speaker 3: across a long period of time because it's important to 532 00:31:47,440 --> 00:31:50,440 Speaker 3: follow people so you can see how things help and 533 00:31:50,560 --> 00:31:53,959 Speaker 3: change them and what works and what doesn't work. Her 534 00:31:54,040 --> 00:31:56,920 Speaker 3: husband was incredibly picky in the kitchen. He just look, 535 00:31:57,440 --> 00:31:59,400 Speaker 3: you know, you're cutting the carrots the wrong way. No, 536 00:31:59,600 --> 00:32:02,000 Speaker 3: you know, you put the noodles in the water too soon. 537 00:32:02,440 --> 00:32:05,640 Speaker 3: Such a minute little thing. But for her, after many 538 00:32:05,680 --> 00:32:09,240 Speaker 3: years of marriage, it was just very you know, it 539 00:32:09,280 --> 00:32:12,880 Speaker 3: was the proverbial water on the rock, right. And she 540 00:32:14,160 --> 00:32:17,680 Speaker 3: was scared, not because he was a scary person. He wasn't. 541 00:32:18,400 --> 00:32:20,880 Speaker 3: He was a good man, good person, but she just 542 00:32:20,960 --> 00:32:24,240 Speaker 3: couldn't find the voice due to her own very old 543 00:32:24,280 --> 00:32:29,600 Speaker 3: stories from her own growing up childhood, how she'd been 544 00:32:29,640 --> 00:32:33,040 Speaker 3: conditioned as a woman across her life to just say 545 00:32:34,600 --> 00:32:39,320 Speaker 3: you cut the carrots like that was scary. Now, I 546 00:32:39,480 --> 00:32:45,240 Speaker 3: watched her over time be able to articulate things about 547 00:32:45,280 --> 00:32:49,840 Speaker 3: what she needed that were met by her partner with 548 00:32:49,880 --> 00:32:55,000 Speaker 3: such grace. Sometimes the people around us are waiting for 549 00:32:55,120 --> 00:32:58,720 Speaker 3: us to have agency, and when we have it, they 550 00:32:58,840 --> 00:33:03,040 Speaker 3: grow as well. But when we're both ruminating in our 551 00:33:03,080 --> 00:33:08,240 Speaker 3: separate corners people, it can't happen, and nor can connection, 552 00:33:08,520 --> 00:33:09,600 Speaker 3: and nor can growth. 553 00:33:11,440 --> 00:33:24,000 Speaker 2: That's very well. But one thing that came to mind 554 00:33:24,080 --> 00:33:26,560 Speaker 2: when I was reading the book and sort of reflecting 555 00:33:26,560 --> 00:33:30,360 Speaker 2: to on other exercises that I've been exposed to or 556 00:33:30,400 --> 00:33:32,120 Speaker 2: you know, that I had come up in therapy and 557 00:33:32,160 --> 00:33:37,000 Speaker 2: so forth, was that. And I imagine you've even counted 558 00:33:37,000 --> 00:33:39,960 Speaker 2: this as well as like where someone is introduced to 559 00:33:40,120 --> 00:33:43,840 Speaker 2: as a particular technique and just being introduced to the 560 00:33:43,880 --> 00:33:48,480 Speaker 2: technique without necessarily doing it, it kind of gives you 561 00:33:48,520 --> 00:33:53,600 Speaker 2: a momentary relief from the issue, almost like you recognize 562 00:33:53,640 --> 00:33:55,280 Speaker 2: that there's an off ramp and then you're like, oh, 563 00:33:55,320 --> 00:33:56,800 Speaker 2: I can feel a certain amount of relief, there's an 564 00:33:56,800 --> 00:33:58,640 Speaker 2: off ramp, but then you don't do the practice or 565 00:33:58,720 --> 00:34:00,840 Speaker 2: you don't do the work, and then you'll wind up 566 00:34:00,840 --> 00:34:01,920 Speaker 2: in the same loop again. 567 00:34:02,720 --> 00:34:05,880 Speaker 3: So what you're talking about is locus of control. So 568 00:34:06,120 --> 00:34:11,279 Speaker 3: there is research where just talking about wanting to go 569 00:34:11,360 --> 00:34:15,600 Speaker 3: to therapy and calling a therapist even if you never go, 570 00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:22,960 Speaker 3: shows some appreciable change in individuals who say, hey, mom, dad, 571 00:34:23,080 --> 00:34:25,400 Speaker 3: I want to see a therapist, or to their wife 572 00:34:25,440 --> 00:34:28,560 Speaker 3: like hey Sally, I think I need some help, and 573 00:34:28,719 --> 00:34:33,880 Speaker 3: making a phone call but never making an appointment makes 574 00:34:33,880 --> 00:34:36,879 Speaker 3: some change. And the thinking is and I'm sure there's 575 00:34:36,880 --> 00:34:39,240 Speaker 3: a lot of thinking about this, and I'm sure people 576 00:34:39,320 --> 00:34:42,239 Speaker 3: listening know more about it than I do. But one 577 00:34:42,280 --> 00:34:45,960 Speaker 3: of the areas of thought about this is locus of controls. 578 00:34:46,000 --> 00:34:49,960 Speaker 3: So we have a lot of good research that depression 579 00:34:50,120 --> 00:34:53,080 Speaker 3: is often related to a loss of locus of control. 580 00:34:53,440 --> 00:34:55,759 Speaker 3: So what you're talking about is like, oh, there is 581 00:34:55,800 --> 00:34:59,040 Speaker 3: this method that I can use that gave me this 582 00:34:59,280 --> 00:35:01,920 Speaker 3: enormous Really, I don't know that we spent more than 583 00:35:02,040 --> 00:35:05,719 Speaker 3: ninety seconds. We were taking our time. Maybe we spent 584 00:35:05,840 --> 00:35:09,719 Speaker 3: two minutes. But if you do it yourself, you can 585 00:35:09,719 --> 00:35:12,279 Speaker 3: do it in sixty seconds. I do it all the 586 00:35:12,320 --> 00:35:16,400 Speaker 3: time for myself to catch myself, and we will avoid 587 00:35:16,560 --> 00:35:20,160 Speaker 3: doing it even though we know it gives us a 588 00:35:20,200 --> 00:35:22,359 Speaker 3: locus of control. We might even go like, I could 589 00:35:22,440 --> 00:35:26,600 Speaker 3: be doing that, but I really just feel so seduced 590 00:35:27,040 --> 00:35:31,480 Speaker 3: by wanting to go into my old neural trap. And 591 00:35:31,680 --> 00:35:34,520 Speaker 3: there's a reason for that, because we have laid these 592 00:35:34,560 --> 00:35:39,240 Speaker 3: neural networks over a lifetime and we have good evidence 593 00:35:39,320 --> 00:35:44,600 Speaker 3: of that. So researchers will take kids and they'll divide 594 00:35:44,640 --> 00:35:48,040 Speaker 3: them into two groups. Which two groups? How are they 595 00:35:48,040 --> 00:35:52,440 Speaker 3: dividing them up? Kids who are having more difficulty with 596 00:35:52,600 --> 00:35:57,840 Speaker 3: family dysfunction or family tension, or more distress for any reason. 597 00:35:57,880 --> 00:36:01,919 Speaker 3: It might not be their parents home, versus kids who 598 00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:06,080 Speaker 3: have very low levels of family tension or psychological distress 599 00:36:06,200 --> 00:36:09,680 Speaker 3: or family you know, they have high family connection. And 600 00:36:09,719 --> 00:36:12,240 Speaker 3: they'll separate them into two groups. And by the age 601 00:36:12,239 --> 00:36:17,040 Speaker 3: of twelve to fifteen, the default mode network behaves very 602 00:36:17,040 --> 00:36:21,760 Speaker 3: differently in these two different groups of kids. In kids 603 00:36:21,840 --> 00:36:26,799 Speaker 3: who are experiencing more family tension or bullying, maybe not 604 00:36:27,000 --> 00:36:31,359 Speaker 3: at home, but at school, any kind of situation in 605 00:36:31,400 --> 00:36:35,360 Speaker 3: which they have had to question their mattering or their belonging, 606 00:36:36,480 --> 00:36:39,640 Speaker 3: Versus kids who haven't had to question that, And the 607 00:36:39,719 --> 00:36:42,879 Speaker 3: kids who have the default mode network goes into what's 608 00:36:42,920 --> 00:36:48,680 Speaker 3: called spontaneous rumination because kids have had to lay down 609 00:36:48,719 --> 00:36:54,760 Speaker 3: these neural tracks as children, because that is a survival technique. 610 00:36:54,920 --> 00:36:58,480 Speaker 3: Oh if I just don't do X, but I do 611 00:36:58,560 --> 00:37:02,799 Speaker 3: more of why, I will matter more, I will belong more, 612 00:37:02,920 --> 00:37:08,000 Speaker 3: I won't feel that I you know, I'm not making 613 00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:10,160 Speaker 3: my parents happy. Right. It goes all the way back 614 00:37:10,160 --> 00:37:13,200 Speaker 3: to the drama of the gifted child. It's that idea 615 00:37:13,600 --> 00:37:17,160 Speaker 3: of needing to perform for love or shape ourselves in 616 00:37:17,239 --> 00:37:20,160 Speaker 3: order to belong and we get really, really good at it. 617 00:37:20,160 --> 00:37:22,440 Speaker 3: It shows up in the brain. So in these two 618 00:37:22,480 --> 00:37:27,920 Speaker 3: groups of kids, the kids who had this family tension 619 00:37:28,040 --> 00:37:32,080 Speaker 3: or dysfunction, their brains not only went into spontaneous rumination 620 00:37:32,360 --> 00:37:37,560 Speaker 3: very quickly while doing simple, simple tasks. Oh what if 621 00:37:37,600 --> 00:37:39,400 Speaker 3: I do this wrong? Oh what are they going to 622 00:37:39,440 --> 00:37:39,880 Speaker 3: think of me? 623 00:37:40,040 --> 00:37:40,279 Speaker 2: Oh? 624 00:37:40,440 --> 00:37:43,360 Speaker 3: I screw up? Oh I mess up. They showed the 625 00:37:43,480 --> 00:37:47,160 Speaker 3: distress also in questionnaires about how they were feeling. They 626 00:37:47,200 --> 00:37:51,239 Speaker 3: perform more poorly on the task at hand. And here's 627 00:37:51,280 --> 00:37:56,120 Speaker 3: what blew my mind. They ruminated not just about the 628 00:37:56,160 --> 00:38:00,760 Speaker 3: task at hand, but they went into global rumination where 629 00:38:00,800 --> 00:38:04,720 Speaker 3: every fear they'd ever had, everything they ever ruminated about, 630 00:38:04,760 --> 00:38:07,879 Speaker 3: whether their friend at school like them, whether their mom 631 00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:10,160 Speaker 3: was mad at them, whether they were good enough on 632 00:38:10,239 --> 00:38:13,520 Speaker 3: the soccer field, how they were doing in school, all 633 00:38:13,560 --> 00:38:17,759 Speaker 3: came in very quickly. We don't want that. We don't 634 00:38:17,760 --> 00:38:20,719 Speaker 3: want that for our kids, we don't want that for ourselves. 635 00:38:21,000 --> 00:38:25,360 Speaker 3: But many of us are still living that way as adults. 636 00:38:26,080 --> 00:38:30,719 Speaker 2: In the book, perhaps unsurprisingly, one of the many recommendations 637 00:38:30,760 --> 00:38:34,520 Speaker 2: that comes up is of course walking in nature, which 638 00:38:34,920 --> 00:38:37,160 Speaker 2: it's one of those things that we've I think at 639 00:38:37,160 --> 00:38:39,840 Speaker 2: this point we've all heard it a million times, and 640 00:38:39,880 --> 00:38:42,200 Speaker 2: maybe we're hearing it more and more often because of 641 00:38:42,239 --> 00:38:45,560 Speaker 2: the sort of world we've built for ourselves. You know, 642 00:38:45,920 --> 00:38:48,719 Speaker 2: the number of the different techniques that you focus on 643 00:38:48,800 --> 00:38:52,640 Speaker 2: have to do with shifting sensory focus, and so does 644 00:38:52,800 --> 00:38:54,360 Speaker 2: a lot of it kind of come down to the 645 00:38:54,440 --> 00:38:57,480 Speaker 2: idea that, like walking, just walking in nature is kind 646 00:38:57,480 --> 00:39:00,080 Speaker 2: of more in line with what we evolved to do 647 00:39:00,280 --> 00:39:02,759 Speaker 2: versus all of these other sort of distractions. 648 00:39:03,160 --> 00:39:06,400 Speaker 3: Absolutely, and our brain is really really good at hooking 649 00:39:06,520 --> 00:39:10,920 Speaker 3: us up to nature very very quickly, because obviously, in 650 00:39:11,280 --> 00:39:15,520 Speaker 3: evolutionary time, it's only one billionth of a millisecond that 651 00:39:15,560 --> 00:39:19,160 Speaker 3: we've had all these screens and digital devices, and our 652 00:39:19,200 --> 00:39:22,280 Speaker 3: brains are changing to wire up to that and to 653 00:39:22,360 --> 00:39:24,960 Speaker 3: interface with that in a way that isn't healthy for us. 654 00:39:25,480 --> 00:39:28,719 Speaker 3: But our brains have had a lot longer to interface 655 00:39:28,880 --> 00:39:33,040 Speaker 3: with the world around us, and it can. It's so again, 656 00:39:33,200 --> 00:39:36,359 Speaker 3: you know, it's almost terrible to write about nature as 657 00:39:36,400 --> 00:39:40,120 Speaker 3: an answer because it's just really a reminder. We've heard 658 00:39:40,120 --> 00:39:42,360 Speaker 3: it so many times. But we can see this in 659 00:39:42,400 --> 00:39:45,640 Speaker 3: the brain. So we can see the default mode network 660 00:39:45,719 --> 00:39:49,360 Speaker 3: starts to go very quickly into its interconnected state with 661 00:39:49,400 --> 00:39:52,880 Speaker 3: the rest of the brain. It happens for us now. 662 00:39:53,080 --> 00:39:56,520 Speaker 3: So there are lots of little tricks, not tricks, but 663 00:39:56,680 --> 00:39:59,959 Speaker 3: things we can do even better than walking in nature. 664 00:40:00,000 --> 00:40:04,520 Speaker 3: Sure is lying down on the grass and what does 665 00:40:04,560 --> 00:40:07,719 Speaker 3: that do? Well? It opens up all of our sensory 666 00:40:07,760 --> 00:40:10,239 Speaker 3: portals very very quickly. But it does something else, and 667 00:40:10,280 --> 00:40:12,160 Speaker 3: you could actually do it right now in your studio 668 00:40:12,280 --> 00:40:16,120 Speaker 3: after we get off this wonderful podcast. Lie on the floor. 669 00:40:16,920 --> 00:40:21,280 Speaker 3: It breaks the default mode networks locked perspective. You're sending 670 00:40:21,320 --> 00:40:24,560 Speaker 3: your brain this signal like what is happening here? You're 671 00:40:24,600 --> 00:40:28,040 Speaker 3: looking at the ceiling you're looking at the the sprinklers 672 00:40:28,080 --> 00:40:30,920 Speaker 3: and the lights and the ceiling, and you're in an 673 00:40:30,960 --> 00:40:35,520 Speaker 3: unusual position. We ruminate in the same places our bed, 674 00:40:35,719 --> 00:40:39,760 Speaker 3: our chair, our kitchen, our car. We change the place 675 00:40:39,960 --> 00:40:43,520 Speaker 3: even better if you're lying on the grass. There are 676 00:40:43,560 --> 00:40:45,520 Speaker 3: lots of other quick things we can do. I talk 677 00:40:45,560 --> 00:40:49,160 Speaker 3: about something called ballistic interruption, and we talked about how 678 00:40:49,560 --> 00:40:52,560 Speaker 3: we lay down these neural tracks over and over, which 679 00:40:52,600 --> 00:40:55,360 Speaker 3: makes it more much more easy for our brain to 680 00:40:55,360 --> 00:40:59,040 Speaker 3: slip into the old reels. We have to interrupt our 681 00:40:59,200 --> 00:41:03,280 Speaker 3: entrench neural wak wiring and here again. And it sounds 682 00:41:03,360 --> 00:41:05,279 Speaker 3: kind of hokey, so it's kind of hard for me 683 00:41:05,360 --> 00:41:08,240 Speaker 3: to write about it, but we see it on fMRI scans. 684 00:41:09,000 --> 00:41:11,680 Speaker 3: Language here too is our portal to escape. We can 685 00:41:11,760 --> 00:41:14,600 Speaker 3: literally get in on our thinking. Do the miss framework, 686 00:41:15,120 --> 00:41:19,440 Speaker 3: and then your brain can tell your brain to cut 687 00:41:19,480 --> 00:41:22,839 Speaker 3: off the neural loop. I don't listen to these fear 688 00:41:22,880 --> 00:41:28,120 Speaker 3: based thoughts. Nope, not doing this, not today, No thaggs. 689 00:41:28,719 --> 00:41:32,400 Speaker 3: And it sounds so silly, but this way of thinking's 690 00:41:32,440 --> 00:41:35,719 Speaker 3: no longer welcome here. Forget about it. I'm closing the 691 00:41:35,760 --> 00:41:38,560 Speaker 3: door on this. We're not going there. If you do 692 00:41:38,600 --> 00:41:41,560 Speaker 3: the missed framework, and you allow yourself to kind of 693 00:41:41,600 --> 00:41:45,480 Speaker 3: tenderly hold the emotions that you have not been allowing 694 00:41:45,520 --> 00:41:50,399 Speaker 3: yourself to feel and acknowledge them and name them. And 695 00:41:50,400 --> 00:41:54,520 Speaker 3: then you ballistically interrupt so that your brain doesn't slip 696 00:41:54,640 --> 00:41:59,000 Speaker 3: slide back into that pattern. You're getting even a little 697 00:41:59,000 --> 00:42:02,359 Speaker 3: bit further outside. And then, as I say in the book, 698 00:42:02,360 --> 00:42:04,920 Speaker 3: you've got to get your body to agree. Right, you 699 00:42:04,960 --> 00:42:08,320 Speaker 3: can get your brain all online you talked about earlier, 700 00:42:08,400 --> 00:42:10,279 Speaker 3: Rob like, oh, I can feel like you know, my 701 00:42:10,360 --> 00:42:12,520 Speaker 3: brain wants to go right back there, like I got 702 00:42:12,560 --> 00:42:15,840 Speaker 3: a little ghost outside of me, but my brain is 703 00:42:15,880 --> 00:42:19,400 Speaker 3: going like, but we could go back, you know. And 704 00:42:20,000 --> 00:42:23,520 Speaker 3: that's because your body hasn't yet agreed. And so that's why. 705 00:42:23,600 --> 00:42:27,200 Speaker 3: And minddrop, I have a lot of mind body practices 706 00:42:27,400 --> 00:42:29,960 Speaker 3: that we can do again in like sixty seconds or 707 00:42:30,080 --> 00:42:33,680 Speaker 3: less to try to get not only the right language 708 00:42:33,719 --> 00:42:37,640 Speaker 3: happening and the right awareness and acceptance, but we have 709 00:42:37,719 --> 00:42:41,800 Speaker 3: to bring our somatic state into agreement that we're safe. 710 00:42:41,840 --> 00:42:43,920 Speaker 3: And Okay, there's. 711 00:42:43,719 --> 00:42:47,279 Speaker 2: One that you outlined that I actually tried out right 712 00:42:47,320 --> 00:42:49,879 Speaker 2: before the interview here with that I forget the name 713 00:42:49,880 --> 00:42:53,400 Speaker 2: of it. I'm sorry, but okay, it involves like raising 714 00:42:53,680 --> 00:42:54,800 Speaker 2: your hands here. 715 00:42:54,960 --> 00:42:56,840 Speaker 3: Yeaheah, the body safe breaker. 716 00:42:57,400 --> 00:42:58,479 Speaker 2: Yes, yes, that's the one. 717 00:42:58,560 --> 00:43:01,080 Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I'm happy if we have time to 718 00:43:01,120 --> 00:43:04,960 Speaker 3: walk people through it. It's up to you. Sure, yeah, okay, I. 719 00:43:04,920 --> 00:43:08,080 Speaker 2: Think folks would take that. Don't do it while you're driving. 720 00:43:08,400 --> 00:43:13,280 Speaker 3: Please, don't do it while you're driving and holding a knife. Okay, 721 00:43:13,360 --> 00:43:15,480 Speaker 3: So really what you want to do, and this is 722 00:43:15,520 --> 00:43:19,600 Speaker 3: based on science around what's called cyclical sighing, which is 723 00:43:19,840 --> 00:43:23,680 Speaker 3: a type of sighing that literally helps bring our cortisol 724 00:43:23,800 --> 00:43:28,200 Speaker 3: levels down and establishes more positive emotions and a sense 725 00:43:28,239 --> 00:43:31,600 Speaker 3: of safety. So I'm sitting down, you're sitting down. I'm 726 00:43:31,640 --> 00:43:33,000 Speaker 3: going to do it. You're not going to be able 727 00:43:33,000 --> 00:43:35,080 Speaker 3: to really see me do it because it's you know, 728 00:43:35,239 --> 00:43:37,640 Speaker 3: it's audio. But I'm going to do it just because 729 00:43:38,000 --> 00:43:40,200 Speaker 3: I can't just talk it. I have to feel it. 730 00:43:40,680 --> 00:43:43,600 Speaker 3: So basically it's better if you stand up, but I'm 731 00:43:43,640 --> 00:43:46,239 Speaker 3: sitting so I'm going to just do it. So you're 732 00:43:46,280 --> 00:43:48,719 Speaker 3: just going to take like a full slow in hell 733 00:43:48,840 --> 00:43:51,360 Speaker 3: as you raise your arms up overhead and head. I 734 00:43:51,440 --> 00:43:54,799 Speaker 3: love Rob he's doing it with me, and keep your 735 00:43:54,920 --> 00:43:58,080 Speaker 3: arms up and like make tight fis and squeeze your 736 00:43:58,120 --> 00:44:02,000 Speaker 3: hands and close and open your fists and vigorously, vigorously 737 00:44:02,120 --> 00:44:05,800 Speaker 3: shake out your hands. So you taking this big breath, 738 00:44:07,280 --> 00:44:10,719 Speaker 3: fist shake your hands, let the breath out, but keep 739 00:44:10,719 --> 00:44:17,080 Speaker 3: your arms overhead, keep your arms up inhale again pause, 740 00:44:17,920 --> 00:44:22,680 Speaker 3: take in a second breath, and now let it fill 741 00:44:22,719 --> 00:44:26,120 Speaker 3: your whole quality and your chest into your collarbone. And 742 00:44:26,160 --> 00:44:32,600 Speaker 3: now let your arms come down your sidhe all the way. Oh, 743 00:44:32,800 --> 00:44:34,480 Speaker 3: let them fall. Feel better. 744 00:44:34,960 --> 00:44:37,839 Speaker 2: That's good, Yes, absolutely, so I. 745 00:44:37,800 --> 00:44:40,279 Speaker 3: Sort of took little science and added a few little 746 00:44:40,320 --> 00:44:44,799 Speaker 3: neuroscience beats to it. Another really quick thing you could 747 00:44:44,800 --> 00:44:46,839 Speaker 3: do and add on at the end of that, which 748 00:44:46,880 --> 00:44:49,960 Speaker 3: is pretty lovely, is you could take your arms, cross 749 00:44:50,000 --> 00:44:54,280 Speaker 3: them over your body, and our arms on our hands 750 00:44:54,320 --> 00:44:59,440 Speaker 3: and arms are just full of neurow scepters that signal safety. 751 00:44:59,440 --> 00:45:01,520 Speaker 3: Think about it. It's the first thing that you did 752 00:45:01,600 --> 00:45:04,080 Speaker 3: as a child when you needed something. You raised your 753 00:45:04,160 --> 00:45:06,880 Speaker 3: arms to be picked up. So if you take your 754 00:45:06,920 --> 00:45:09,680 Speaker 3: opposite hands put them on the top of your arms. 755 00:45:10,280 --> 00:45:13,359 Speaker 3: Think of something that you really wish that someone who 756 00:45:13,400 --> 00:45:15,200 Speaker 3: loved you would say to you. You don't have to 757 00:45:15,239 --> 00:45:17,520 Speaker 3: say it out loud, but maybe it's like you're safe 758 00:45:17,600 --> 00:45:21,799 Speaker 3: you're loved, use you or your name, because when you 759 00:45:21,920 --> 00:45:24,840 Speaker 3: use you or your name, your brain pays more attention. 760 00:45:25,600 --> 00:45:29,839 Speaker 3: And I would just go, like smooth my hands down 761 00:45:29,880 --> 00:45:36,400 Speaker 3: my arms and just keep going, Donna, You're safe, You're okay, Safe, 762 00:45:37,000 --> 00:45:40,479 Speaker 3: You're okay. And if you do that at the end 763 00:45:41,560 --> 00:45:44,080 Speaker 3: of the body state Breaker, you're going to add a 764 00:45:44,120 --> 00:45:48,279 Speaker 3: whole other layer of neuroceptor relief. If you do the 765 00:45:48,320 --> 00:45:52,680 Speaker 3: miss framework, ballistic interruption and just that one exercise, and 766 00:45:52,719 --> 00:45:55,279 Speaker 3: they're like one hundred more in the book, And you've 767 00:45:55,280 --> 00:45:57,400 Speaker 3: got to grab what works for you, right Rob, Like 768 00:45:57,520 --> 00:45:59,759 Speaker 3: you know, if it resonates, I can see on your 769 00:45:59,760 --> 00:46:02,880 Speaker 3: face like that. Like for some things, we're going to 770 00:46:02,960 --> 00:46:05,080 Speaker 3: try them and it's gonna be like there's a lot 771 00:46:05,160 --> 00:46:07,799 Speaker 3: of different visualization techniques in the book. They could work 772 00:46:07,840 --> 00:46:12,000 Speaker 3: for some people, but they won't for others. Make your menu, 773 00:46:12,640 --> 00:46:15,959 Speaker 3: make what works, and and stack it into your day 774 00:46:16,840 --> 00:46:18,960 Speaker 3: because you're going to ruminate less and you're going to 775 00:46:19,000 --> 00:46:21,720 Speaker 3: get back a lot of precious hours of your life. 776 00:46:23,320 --> 00:46:26,960 Speaker 2: Excellent. Yeah, and so many of the I guess some 777 00:46:27,000 --> 00:46:30,200 Speaker 2: of the techniques that involve language, you know, it's on 778 00:46:30,200 --> 00:46:33,120 Speaker 2: one level like having having grown up, you know, I 779 00:46:33,160 --> 00:46:34,719 Speaker 2: was a child in the nineties and I ended up 780 00:46:34,760 --> 00:46:38,160 Speaker 2: watching Saturday Night Live and there would be these these 781 00:46:38,160 --> 00:46:40,640 Speaker 2: segments with Stuart Smiley where they're making fun of like 782 00:46:40,680 --> 00:46:44,279 Speaker 2: positive affirmations and so like, on one level, it kind 783 00:46:44,280 --> 00:46:46,319 Speaker 2: of made me think for a very long time, like 784 00:46:46,360 --> 00:46:49,840 Speaker 2: not even consciously that like there's something silly about positive happening, 785 00:46:50,560 --> 00:46:54,840 Speaker 2: but but but really like like that speaks to the 786 00:46:54,840 --> 00:46:57,920 Speaker 2: power of language. You know that that so many of 787 00:46:57,960 --> 00:47:01,200 Speaker 2: these techniques do involve some level of like talking to 788 00:47:01,320 --> 00:47:04,640 Speaker 2: ourselfs like you said, using our own name, saying it 789 00:47:05,040 --> 00:47:07,759 Speaker 2: in a language that resonates with us. Yeah. 790 00:47:07,800 --> 00:47:13,640 Speaker 3: Absolutely. Do you remember the Bob Newhart segment where I 791 00:47:13,680 --> 00:47:16,799 Speaker 3: forget who the SNL actor was, came in and she's like, 792 00:47:16,840 --> 00:47:19,080 Speaker 3: I have these terrible problems. He's like, I'm going to 793 00:47:19,120 --> 00:47:22,560 Speaker 3: fix you in sixty seconds. She's like really really and 794 00:47:22,600 --> 00:47:28,160 Speaker 3: he just goes stop it. It doesn't really work that way, 795 00:47:28,239 --> 00:47:30,200 Speaker 3: but I know what you mean. And I say in 796 00:47:30,239 --> 00:47:32,880 Speaker 3: the book some of these techniques, I thought, let me 797 00:47:32,920 --> 00:47:36,040 Speaker 3: look at the science here, because sure, that sounds really great, 798 00:47:36,160 --> 00:47:40,680 Speaker 3: but you know, I'm a science journalist. I don't know 799 00:47:40,760 --> 00:47:45,560 Speaker 3: that I feel silly. I feel silly using some of these, 800 00:47:45,760 --> 00:47:47,440 Speaker 3: but they work for me, and so I'm going to 801 00:47:47,520 --> 00:47:51,040 Speaker 3: keep doing them. I do want to talk about the 802 00:47:51,080 --> 00:47:54,000 Speaker 3: power of visualization because for some people it feels too 803 00:47:54,040 --> 00:47:56,960 Speaker 3: silly to talk to yourself, and we just grew up 804 00:47:56,960 --> 00:47:58,960 Speaker 3: with that same kind of coding that you did that 805 00:47:59,080 --> 00:48:01,880 Speaker 3: this is nonsense, so it just it might not work 806 00:48:02,480 --> 00:48:06,480 Speaker 3: because we feel that way. But visualization. I use a 807 00:48:06,560 --> 00:48:11,160 Speaker 3: visualization technique in the book that is so powerful and 808 00:48:11,239 --> 00:48:14,239 Speaker 3: we see in the brain when you can skip the 809 00:48:14,320 --> 00:48:18,000 Speaker 3: talking to yourself is what I'm trying to say, you 810 00:48:18,040 --> 00:48:20,600 Speaker 3: can go right to visualization because what we see on 811 00:48:20,719 --> 00:48:25,920 Speaker 3: fMRI scans is that visualization lights up even more areas 812 00:48:25,960 --> 00:48:30,640 Speaker 3: of the brain than using language. And it makes sense 813 00:48:30,760 --> 00:48:34,760 Speaker 3: because your pulling in images. So I talk about something 814 00:48:34,760 --> 00:48:38,360 Speaker 3: called the two Roads technique, and it involves your physical body, 815 00:48:38,400 --> 00:48:42,120 Speaker 3: but it also involves almost like creating your own internal 816 00:48:42,120 --> 00:48:45,840 Speaker 3: computer game in which you can choose a right path 817 00:48:46,000 --> 00:48:48,640 Speaker 3: and shift your body in that direction, or a left 818 00:48:48,640 --> 00:48:51,359 Speaker 3: handed path or the right handed path. You are going 819 00:48:51,400 --> 00:48:54,600 Speaker 3: to build out the most beautiful world, kind of like 820 00:48:54,719 --> 00:48:58,480 Speaker 3: on a computer game of all the best experiences that 821 00:48:58,520 --> 00:49:00,640 Speaker 3: have ever happened to all the things you wish, what 822 00:49:00,840 --> 00:49:03,640 Speaker 3: happened to you. Maybe people you loved who've died, you can. 823 00:49:04,000 --> 00:49:06,719 Speaker 3: My dad died when I was twelve, So I'll put 824 00:49:06,719 --> 00:49:10,560 Speaker 3: my hands on his face and hug him and keep walking. 825 00:49:10,640 --> 00:49:14,640 Speaker 3: I'll see my kids, the hikes we've taken, and the tetons, 826 00:49:14,800 --> 00:49:18,400 Speaker 3: and keep going and all the most beautiful moments, the 827 00:49:18,440 --> 00:49:21,360 Speaker 3: first time my children were laid on my chest, things 828 00:49:21,400 --> 00:49:25,560 Speaker 3: my husband and I have done together, and keep going, 829 00:49:25,680 --> 00:49:28,440 Speaker 3: even into things you dream in the future and hope for. 830 00:49:29,360 --> 00:49:31,560 Speaker 3: But your brain is going to keep taking you to 831 00:49:31,600 --> 00:49:35,160 Speaker 3: the left handed path. It's that neural slide back onto 832 00:49:35,200 --> 00:49:39,000 Speaker 3: the left handed path. There you bring in the bad music. 833 00:49:39,160 --> 00:49:42,080 Speaker 3: You go, oh, I know it's raining, it's cloudy, it's horrible, 834 00:49:42,080 --> 00:49:44,640 Speaker 3: it's a bad neighborhood to be in. I know I 835 00:49:44,680 --> 00:49:46,720 Speaker 3: don't want to be on this path. And you go ahead. 836 00:49:46,840 --> 00:49:49,239 Speaker 3: Let it populate with the thing that's the stuff that 837 00:49:49,320 --> 00:49:52,319 Speaker 3: you don't want. Turn your body back to the right 838 00:49:53,880 --> 00:49:58,600 Speaker 3: and go down the right neural path and keep building 839 00:49:58,640 --> 00:50:01,919 Speaker 3: it out. Make the flowers grow, the trees, go, bring 840 00:50:01,960 --> 00:50:05,719 Speaker 3: in the music, the birds, see the people that you 841 00:50:05,800 --> 00:50:12,839 Speaker 3: long for, and that lights up your brain like nobody's business. 842 00:50:21,440 --> 00:50:23,560 Speaker 2: We touched on this a little bit already for sure, 843 00:50:23,640 --> 00:50:27,960 Speaker 2: But can you expand a little bit about how on 844 00:50:28,120 --> 00:50:30,879 Speaker 2: one hand, you know the default mode network is tied 845 00:50:30,960 --> 00:50:37,399 Speaker 2: up with this negative rumination, But then if we spin 846 00:50:37,480 --> 00:50:40,520 Speaker 2: in the other direction, if we spiral up, this can 847 00:50:40,600 --> 00:50:43,400 Speaker 2: also be an engine of creativity as well. 848 00:50:43,200 --> 00:50:46,640 Speaker 3: Right, one hundred percent. So we talked about how the 849 00:50:46,680 --> 00:50:51,600 Speaker 3: word rumination itself has two sides. It can have this dark, brooding, 850 00:50:51,640 --> 00:50:56,799 Speaker 3: recursive negative thinking, and it can also mean musing an ideation. 851 00:50:57,719 --> 00:51:01,279 Speaker 3: What's interesting to me is the fault mode network kind 852 00:51:01,320 --> 00:51:06,239 Speaker 3: of echoes and mirrors this duality. So it is the 853 00:51:06,320 --> 00:51:09,440 Speaker 3: seat it does give rise to. It does generate this 854 00:51:09,600 --> 00:51:13,080 Speaker 3: horrible self referential thinking, what do they think about me? 855 00:51:13,160 --> 00:51:14,879 Speaker 3: What did I do wrong? What did I say wrong? 856 00:51:14,920 --> 00:51:17,359 Speaker 3: How did I flop that up? Which is really bad 857 00:51:17,400 --> 00:51:21,080 Speaker 3: for our mental health, But it also when we get 858 00:51:21,080 --> 00:51:25,400 Speaker 3: it to interface with the entire brain, it is also 859 00:51:25,480 --> 00:51:30,000 Speaker 3: the seat of our most creative imaginings, our most creative ideas. 860 00:51:30,520 --> 00:51:34,680 Speaker 3: It interfaces with the prefrontal cortex and other task positive 861 00:51:34,760 --> 00:51:41,239 Speaker 3: areas that give us the insight those glorious lit moments 862 00:51:41,280 --> 00:51:45,160 Speaker 3: of experience that we all long for in life, where 863 00:51:45,160 --> 00:51:48,480 Speaker 3: we have the big idea or we think as we 864 00:51:48,560 --> 00:51:52,839 Speaker 3: look at our child across the kitchen table, gosh, I 865 00:51:52,880 --> 00:51:56,000 Speaker 3: love this person so much, and a thousand stories split 866 00:51:56,120 --> 00:51:58,920 Speaker 3: through our heads. It is the seat of both the 867 00:51:59,040 --> 00:52:05,040 Speaker 3: darkest and the most transformative experiences that we have. So 868 00:52:05,239 --> 00:52:08,279 Speaker 3: the idea is to use all that we have, with 869 00:52:08,760 --> 00:52:11,560 Speaker 3: the best of neuroscience and the best of our love 870 00:52:11,600 --> 00:52:15,759 Speaker 3: for ourselves to flip that switch, and we can do it. 871 00:52:15,880 --> 00:52:18,319 Speaker 3: I followed a lot of people over two years, and 872 00:52:18,360 --> 00:52:20,799 Speaker 3: it gets the more you try, the easier it. 873 00:52:20,880 --> 00:52:25,360 Speaker 2: Guess well, that is inspiring, as is the book. I 874 00:52:25,920 --> 00:52:27,600 Speaker 2: want to thank you for coming on the show. Here 875 00:52:28,280 --> 00:52:30,040 Speaker 2: I'm going to hold the book up for folks on 876 00:52:30,120 --> 00:52:35,399 Speaker 2: video for anyone listening to the podcast on Netflix. But yes, 877 00:52:35,440 --> 00:52:37,880 Speaker 2: the book again is Mind Drama, The Science of Rumination 878 00:52:38,040 --> 00:52:42,239 Speaker 2: and How to Outwit your Inner Defeatist, by Dona Jackson Nagazawa. 879 00:52:42,360 --> 00:52:44,520 Speaker 2: By the time this episode is out, it should be 880 00:52:44,600 --> 00:52:47,000 Speaker 2: available wherever you get your books. 881 00:52:47,239 --> 00:52:49,640 Speaker 3: Thanks so much for having me, Thanks for coming on. 882 00:52:49,560 --> 00:52:54,560 Speaker 2: The show, Thank you, Thanks, thanks once more to Donna 883 00:52:54,719 --> 00:52:57,400 Speaker 2: Jackson Nagazawa for taking time out of her day to 884 00:52:57,480 --> 00:53:01,759 Speaker 2: discuss this fabulous new book, Mine Drama, The Science of Rumination. 885 00:53:02,160 --> 00:53:04,840 Speaker 2: You can find this wherever you get your books, and 886 00:53:04,960 --> 00:53:07,719 Speaker 2: again I highly recommend it. Thanks as always to the 887 00:53:07,800 --> 00:53:12,480 Speaker 2: talented and excellent JJ Possway for producing this episode. As always, 888 00:53:12,520 --> 00:53:16,080 Speaker 2: if you want to reach out with questions, feedback, or 889 00:53:16,120 --> 00:53:20,160 Speaker 2: if you have suggestions for future interview episodes, Folks, authors, 890 00:53:20,200 --> 00:53:23,160 Speaker 2: scientists that you think I should have on the show, 891 00:53:23,200 --> 00:53:25,000 Speaker 2: just write in I would love to hear from you. 892 00:53:25,280 --> 00:53:27,799 Speaker 2: That email address is contact at stuff to Blow your 893 00:53:27,800 --> 00:53:36,440 Speaker 2: Mind dot com. 894 00:53:36,560 --> 00:53:39,480 Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For 895 00:53:39,560 --> 00:53:43,400 Speaker 1: more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 896 00:53:43,480 --> 00:54:00,960 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. 897 00:54:01,120 --> 00:54:02,759 Speaker 2: Have the pot