rumination

Shape your environment, shape your mind

by

One of the biggest con­trib­u­tors to our hap­pi­ness is some­thing we bare­ly pay atten­tion to: the voice inside our own heads.

As psy­chol­o­gist Ethan Kross describes in his new book Chat­ter, that voice is con­stant­ly ana­lyz­ing the sit­u­a­tions we’re in, reflect­ing on the past and future, and telling us who we are. While some­times friend­ly and optimistic—it’s OK, everything’s going to work out!—it can also be crit­i­cal and down­beat. Our inner voice can berate us for mis­takes or decide our life is ruined. It can rumi­nate on neg­a­tive emo­tions and expe­ri­ences, dredg­ing them up with­out any kind of con­struc­tive resolution.

Accord­ing to Kross, there are three main ways we can turn down the chat­ter in our heads: shift­ing our per­spec­tive so we’re not so immersed in our prob­lems, talk­ing with oth­ers to get sup­port, and chang­ing the envi­ron­ment around us. [Read more…] about Shape your envi­ron­ment, shape your mind

How COVID-related stress can disrupt your brain circuits and nine tips to prevent it

by

COVID-19 has touched each of us some­how. Many now rec­og­nize that car­ing for our men­tal health is as essen­tial as address­ing the virus if we are to emerge stronger, more con­nect­ed and more resilient.

The Ancient Greeks said “know thy­self” to live sound­ly, but it is only now that we have the tech­nol­o­gy to start under­stand­ing how our indi­vid­ual expe­ri­ences arise from the com­plex­i­ty of our brains. [Read more…] about How COVID-relat­ed stress can dis­rupt your brain cir­cuits and nine tips to pre­vent it

Repetitive negative thinking may increase (or perhaps be caused by) cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s pathology

by

Dementia: negative thinking linked with more rapid cognitive decline, study indicates

Demen­tia affects an esti­mat­ed 54 mil­lion peo­ple world­wide. There no cure, but reports indi­cate that approx­i­mate­ly a third of demen­tia cas­es may be pre­ventable, which is why many researchers have begun to focus on iden­ti­fy­ing risk fac­tors. This would allow for bet­ter per­son­alised inter­ven­tions that may be able to reduce risk, delay, or even pre­vent the onset of dementia.

Cur­rent research shows that genet­ics, high blood pres­sure, and smok­ing are all risk fac­tors for devel­op­ing demen­tia. But a lot of peo­ple don’t realise that there is also a rela­tion­ship between men­tal ill-health and high­er demen­tia risk too. Stud­ies have shown that depres­sion, anx­i­ety, and post trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­der are all linked to a high­er risk of devel­op­ing demen­tia in old­er age. Our recent study builds on this research by exam­in­ing whether a style of think­ing that is com­mon to these men­tal health con­di­tions is asso­ci­at­ed with indi­ca­tors of Alzheimer’s dis­ease, the most com­mon type of dementia.

Peo­ple expe­ri­enc­ing men­tal ill health fre­quent­ly engage in a style of think­ing called “Repet­i­tive Neg­a­tive Think­ing”. This style of think­ing involves the ten­den­cy to have neg­a­tive thoughts about the future (wor­ry) or about the past (rumi­na­tion), and these thoughts can feel uncontrollable.

In 2015, I devel­oped a hypoth­e­sis called [Read more…] about Repet­i­tive neg­a­tive think­ing may increase (or per­haps be caused by) cog­ni­tive decline and Alzheimer’s pathology

Study shows how online mindfulness interventions can reduce work-related rumination and fatigue, and improve sleep quality

by

__________

Work these days often comes with long hours, emo­tion­al­ly drain­ing col­leagues, and com­plex prob­lems that require an enor­mous amount of men­tal ener­gy. So it’s no sur­prise that many of us have a hard time leav­ing work-relat­ed thoughts at the office.

“Sur­veys have shown that between 16 and 25 per­cent of the work­force have reg­u­lar issues of not being able to switch off and are upset or dis­tressed by work-relat­ed thoughts,” says Mark Crop­ley, a pro­fes­sor of health psy­chol­o­gy at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Sur­rey. That can lead to a host of men­tal and phys­i­cal health issues, includ­ing dif­fi­cul­ty focus­ing and depres­sion. [Read more…] about Study shows how online mind­ful­ness inter­ven­tions can reduce work-relat­ed rumi­na­tion and fatigue, and improve sleep quality

Training our brains’ executive control to reduce rumination and improve mood

by

happybrainIsraeli com­put­er ‘game’ teach­es brain to be hap­pi­er (Haaretz):

“There are peo­ple who think dwelling on their emo­tions is help­ful, view­ing it as a kind of wrestling match with their inner demons. But accord­ing to psy­chol­o­gists, it’s [Read more…] about Train­ing our brains’ exec­u­tive con­trol to reduce rumi­na­tion and improve mood