Talk On How And Why Mindfulness Impacts Thinking

In this talk we explore the good and bad of thinking. We explore some of the emerging research on why thinking can get so destructive and can be one of the primary drivers in us not feeling mentally "well." And we explore why mindfulness and meditation are such powerful tools in freeing ourselves from the destructive aspects of thinking.

Transcript

Alright,

Today we're going to talk a little bit about thoughts and what mindfulness says about thoughts and thinking and yeah.

So why do we think?

Why do we have thoughts?

Most of what we are doing with thinking is for the most part planning,

Thinking about things that are going to happen in the future and trying to kind of predict and plan and coordinate our response in the future.

We also do a lot of processing of the past and a lot of that is kind of processing in order to kind of do something differently in the future or can relate to the future but can also just kind of be past oriented and focusing on reliving memories for various reasons.

So a lot of what we're doing is kind of living with our thoughts in either the past or the future and a lot of this as we've all experienced in many,

Many facets of our lives is very,

Very helpful and very good.

I would say this is kind of like the good part of thinking when we think about all that we've achieved with the power of thought that is for the most part pretty unique to humans.

Still something that science is always debating but so there's a lot of good related to thinking.

We need to remember that.

The bad of thinking is multifold as well.

The bad of thinking,

One of the biggest challenges with thought is that we can't turn it off or many of us have this feeling of really kind of be at the mercy of this relentless thinking process.

You can feel kind of out of control with it just kind of being a constant,

Constantly a little chatter there,

Always,

Always there.

And what another big kind of a big piece of that is that we end up missing a lot of experience in our life because we're caught in for the most part either the past or the future.

We're caught in this whirlpool of our mental processing and we miss all of the other part of the moment to moment experience that is other stuff than thought,

Right?

The sights,

The sounds,

The smells,

The emotions,

All this other stuff that's going on for us in every single moment.

For the most part,

We get really focused and we can feel like we're kind of living in the thoughts and not in the kind of true landscape of where we are in a given moment.

The other bad of thinking is that we have a natural negativity bias.

This is for the most part a protective mechanism by focusing on future things that may be bad,

That may happen to us,

That we can hopefully predict and plan and make those bad things not happen.

Or focusing on bad things that have happened in the past,

We can,

If our negativity bias is also focused on the past,

We can,

What are some bad things that happened to me in the past?

How do I predict,

Make sure those don't happen in the future?

And this is really very true for us as social beings.

We absolutely depend on other humans to stay alive and we are a very social species.

It's an absolutely inherent part of our evolution and our day-to-day experience and survival.

And so a lot of what we can focus on is bad things that have happened in the past socially and trying to kind of process those and figure out how to remedy them.

And so it's,

Our brains have this natural negativity bias that is now proven through lots of research.

And so why does all this happen?

What's going on here?

What's,

Why is this?

Currently we're in 2023 and we are at a stage in research that we can do some pretty incredible research into the brain,

How the brain works and also the brain on the,

Your brain on meditation.

So it's,

And this research is kind of,

A lot of it ends up giving credence to and finer detail to improving out things and benefits that have been attested to meditation over thousands of years of this practice existing.

So one of the areas of research is in this,

This part of the brain called the default mode network.

And this default mode network is known now as kind of the brain's filtering mechanism.

And the general idea here is that on a moment-to-moment basis,

We are taking in just absolute torrent of information.

If you think about all of the senses,

The five senses that we have,

We're taking,

We just have just so much stimuli from all the things that our eyes are taking in on a moment-to-moment basis to the sounds,

To the physical sensations.

It's just an absolute sheer torrent of information.

And so the default mode network is kind of thought about as the orchestra conductor that determines what requires attention.

What kind of filters up to the level of consciousness or right below it that leads to some kind of action.

So for example,

We,

You may have a lot of things near you that the brain has quickly decided that doesn't require any action on your part.

So maybe a chair or a carpet or other furniture nearby that over the course of you developing as a child,

You learned that chair or that carpet or that table or whatever,

That bed is of no danger to me.

And so on a moment-to-moment basis,

I don't have to do anything about it.

I can kind of,

For the most part,

Check it out.

And by adulthood,

Your brain has gotten really good at observing and testing reality and making reliable predictions.

The goal here is,

Right,

We have finite energy.

And so the primary role of this orchestra conductor or this kind of hub is to take in this information and decide what warrants investment of our resources,

Of our,

For the most part,

Our energy.

And in,

For this kind of processing predictive mechanism,

Uncertainty is the greatest challenge,

Right?

For,

Because if we have things that are uncertain,

We can't reliably predict how we should respond,

What our actions should be.

And the,

And so the,

Our brains are,

By the time we're an adult,

We're really good at this kind of predictive coding.

It's evolved to help us reduce uncertainty in our lives.

Okay?

So most of us,

By the time we're adults,

Are really,

Really good at this.

And this is helpful in many,

Many moments of our lives,

Right?

Think of all the,

All of the things around you that you're not,

They're not warranting your attention because you're this default mode network has decided,

Nope,

That tree over there is safe or whatever,

Et cetera.

But what this also means is that there is some patterning,

Right?

You probably have kind of picked that out from what I've been describing so far.

And that patterning can be really destructive and it can,

And that even broader than that,

The,

This rigidity,

This patterning,

This kind of habitual,

Um,

Habitual processing of if then with your brain,

That rigidity is actually what some mental health professionals are now kind of thinking about as,

As the,

Of kind of as mental illness itself.

That either the rigidity of a brain versus the flexibility of a brain and how,

And how we kind of respond to the world is kind of a way to summarize the feeling of not feeling kind of mentally well.

We can think about a lot of the,

The times,

The,

The kind of ways that we categorize mental illness as being stuck in a rut of thinking and the content of that,

Um,

Being kind of different for different people,

Whether we're thinking about something like an,

Um,

Well,

Yeah,

So the,

The content not being super important,

But the kind of this,

The rigidity of thought that's being stuck in a rut of for the most part,

It often relating to something about how we see ourselves or how we see the world and having the default mode network be so kind of just so strong that we just get stuck in only thinking a certain way.

And so we can,

We now know from,

From,

Uh,

Research that meditation is actually quieting the default mode network.

It's actually quieting this part of the brain that it can be so helpful,

But can also be responsible for us being caught in destructive,

Habitual thought patterns.

So in meditation,

In meditation and mindfulness practice,

We can experience a brief moment or if,

If even a brief moment can be extended,

But we can experience brief,

Even small moments of,

Of this,

Of kind of expanding that possibility of having different thoughts.

You say neurons that fire together,

Wired together,

And the ideas that have in these moments of,

Um,

Of softening and of kind of paying less attention to this thought pattern that we can realize the possibility of,

Of,

Of a different pathway,

Kind of creating new,

New roads and new neural pathways in our brain.

And one of the most powerful things about this is that feeling in a moment can feel really,

Can be really powerful.

And you,

In the moment can have of an,

In moments of mindfulness,

Whether that's in sitting practice or in your daily life that you can experience that feeling of feeling,

Um,

Of,

Of quieting the default mode networking and,

And not giving the time of day to,

Um,

Uh,

A habitual thought pattern that comes up.

You can come back to anything else that's going on with your experience.

And that moment of freedom can feel really,

Really powerful.

And the other thing that is really incredible that science is proving happens and that I have experienced in my own practice is that having those experiences has a lingering effect on you throughout your day.

I have experienced this so profoundly as I've explored this practice more and more that even just,

Just having moments where I see a thought and then don't associate with it,

Having more moments of that means that kind of throughout my day,

It's easier for me to kind of subconsciously notice a thought come up and just not get caught in it to feel some separation from it.

And,

Uh,

And to feel I have an existence.

I have a self that is separate from whatever the content of my thoughts is.

One of the most powerful things I think the reasons that are,

Sorry,

One of those re one of the strongest reasons this is really powerful is because our default mode network is it learned the patterning that the pattern that we have,

That we have habituated into our brains is largely,

Uh,

Informed by and develop the patterning based on a lot of social cues that includes people that we were maybe raised by and includes,

Um,

Things that we've experienced kind of soaked in through our culture.

And a lot of,

We,

We,

We've all experienced a lot of what our culture teaches us is,

Is really negative,

Including a lot of negative self-talk and a lot of,

Um,

Kind of,

Uh,

There's no reason there's,

You know,

You should love yourself only with conditions.

It's like that.

And so in mindfulness practice can make us feel in a moment,

But then also how these like a lasting effects of realizing that we exist separately from our thoughts.

I'll end there and hopefully this is,

Um,

Helpful,

Provocative,

Inspiring,

Interesting to you.

And,

Um,

I invite you to explore this in,

Um,

In kind of as you,

As you dive into your practice and work with thoughts.

Thank you.

And have a lovely day.

Reviews

Very elegant review of the brain and hope and why we do what we do— help our brains detach from the default, love it! 🙏🏼🙏🏼