Listening to a talk by Dr. Nicole Labor.
In her talk on addictions, she discussed how the middle brain reaches out to the frontal cortex, looking for a “reason why i drink”.
I have found that in my own “personal research project”, that this happens in a similar way with the brain reaching out for reasons why i feel good, or uncomfortable and depressed …. in all sorts of situations.
For example, when i wake up at night, and perhaps there is a painful thing going on in my digestive process, it seems like the brain begins searching for reasons why i feel this way, and will usually try to use life baggage to answer the question, and then begin ruminating on it, and try to pull me into feeling bad or even depression …. when I am able to tell my brain that it is just a digestive pain and to stop searching for other reasons, it seems that the brain says “oh… right… ok” and stops looking for a reason. Very interesting!!!
Another process that seems to be at work often, is that when i wake up in the morning, the brain is pretty much at peace, and then it starts to search in my “life circumstances” areas, and uses what it finds to say “this is why you are going to feel bad (or good) today”… could be money issues, could be relationship issues, could be beating myself up for something I have done…. but it is like the brain needs to “re-set” my general inner environment with these “circumstantial reasons”… But when I can tell my brain, “everything is perfect, just relax” (everything is just as it should be…. Reality) , this releases this process from the “baggage carrying” mechanism that it is trying to put in place.
Again, the paying attention to my breath is guaranteed to simply let this process vaporize, as in paying attention to the breath (in and out of the nostrils) the ruminative process just shuts off….. it runs off like water off a ducks back ……
It is like a toggle switch in the brain….. either the ruminative process is turned on, or the “focusing on the breath” process is turned on.
This lines up with the two brain processes spoken of in Gary Weber’s research in neuroscience:
The Default Mode Network (DMN) that ruminates about life circumstances and the self and weighs us down. (Also daydreaming mode)
and….
The Task Positive Network (TPN) which fully focuses us on something.
One or the other is at work in our brains.
Reality is Dharma 