This is your brain on overthinking

My brain felt like this when I was overthinking:

I was really stuck in those dark swirls.

Learning how to get out of the hot mess in my head seemed like magic.

I got curious about what happened in my brain when I was overthinking and why something as simple as reciting words I loved stopped it.

Maybe you're wondering about that, too.

Let's take a quick (and very oversimplified) tour of 3 parts of your brain.

🧠 Your prefrontal cortex (PFC)

The analyzing, problem-solving, and planning part of your brain -- right behind your forehead.

🧠 Your amygdala, deep in the center of your brain.

A tiny, almond-sized structure that manages your emotional life.

It assigns emotions to your experiences and signals your whole nervous system to create physical feelings that match them.

If you're afraid, your amygdala pumps out stress hormones. Your heart pounds, you break out in a cold sweat, your stomach plummets.

🧠 Your default mode network (DMN) includes structures in the front, back, and middle of your brain.

Think of your PFC and DMN as being on a seesaw--only one can be up at a time. Your PFC is active when you focus on something needing brain power. Your DMN is active when you're not focusing. It:

• self-reflects, thinking about yourself and what other people think about you.

• 
  

• creates and remembers relevant memories of your experiences--constantly writing your autobiography.

• 
  

• helps you make sense of what people are saying and anticipate what they could say next.

• 
  

• is the seat of mind wandering, thinking about the future and about things that are completely unrelated to anything your super smart PFC wants you to do.

In 2D, they look roughly like this.

Notice all the blue dots. They represent structures in your brain that are part of your DMN.

Every blue dot is connected to every other one. In 3D, your DMN is a really complicated version of this:

Overthinking can start...

in your PFC with being unable to solve a problem,

your amygdala with feeling uneasy,

or your DMN with your mind wandering to a future you don't want.

No matter where it begins, overthinking instantly involves all three.

This is why you can't just think yourself out of overthinking.

🛑 Your PFC gets stuck in down time because your DMN is active. It becomes hard to concentrate on anything but the torrent of thoughts in your head. Which increases your stress.

⛽ Your amygdala continues to pump out stress hormones and you get more uncomfortable.

🎉 Your DMN has a party. It judges you, pulls up memories of screwing up or being afraid, and conjures up future consequences you don't want.

Why does reciting a poem, prayer, or psalm stop all this?

It gives your PFC a task to focus on. The more you focus, the faster your DMN powers down.

Your DMN can take several minutes or more to stand down, making it hard to concentrate on reciting the words you chose. It's important to keep going, starting over when you realize you lost the thread.

It tells your amygdala to stop sending stress hormones and soothes the fear, grief, and insecurity that accompany overthinking. You remember how gratitude, hope, and peace feel.

So simple. So powerful.

1. Menon, V. 20 years of the default mode network: a review and synthesis. Neuron. 2023; 111(16): 2469–2487.

PS. If you haven't found words that really work for you yet, check out the crowdsourced serenity of Peace Threads.