An Old Classic
I’m guilty.
I’m guilty of thinking too much.
I get caught in my head and I stay there and then all the troubles start.
I replay these “talk tracks” in my head like songs from my Favorites playlist in Spotify.
It’s called rumination, and it makes my life miserable sometimes.
So, what do I do to combat this affliction?
Did you ever see the movie, “What About Bob?” The 1991 comedy where Richard Dreyfuss plays Dr. Leo Marvin, Bill Murray’s psychologist? Bob, Bill Murray’s character, is Dreyfuss’s neediest patient, requiring constant visits and reminders of how to be mindful.
Via Dr. Marvin’s cognitive behavior therapy, Bob narrates his every move to keep him living in the moment, and thus not falling down the ruminative rabbit hole. It was funny back then, when I saw it as a teenager. Little did I know I’d be implementing it in midlife.
The good news is that it works. Literally steering my brain away from a thought pattern by speaking out my actions (I’m walking to the car now. I’m opening the car door. I am sitting in the driver’s seat. I am turning on the car, etc. etc.) has rescued me from many dark times these days.
Just when I’m about to play an old classic in my head, or when I try to slip on a pair of those very familiar sad blue jeans, I stop and say to myself: “Brain, I am going to go for a walk now. I am not going to go there right now.”
By interrupting my brain, I am putting a halt on those ruminations and thought patterns that accrete in my head. Sure, they are there, and they pop up, but I’m learning to at least push them aside and allow my mind and body to focus on something else: living.
What I’m learning through all of this, is that thoughts, like bad habits, die slowly. Because rumination lingers so powerfully, mindfulness in all its boringness is critical. It means not only observing the moment, but embracing it fully by experiencing it one-hundred per cent. It means not wandering off into a dark wooded forest or into a slimy swamp. Over time, those thoughts and thought patterns weaken, and the rest of our organism strengthens.
So, if you’re stuck, stop and redirect your brain. Narrate what you are doing. Ask yourself, “What about me?”
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Photo by Wes Hicks on Unsplash
