Do You Want an Off Button for Your Brain?
Experts weigh in on how to disengage
Lately, I feel like my brain is on an out-of-control hamster wheel. Spinning, spinning, and not going anywhere except over and over the same worrisome thoughts.
What can I do to earn more money? Will I be able to meet next month’s bills? When will my delinquent client pay me? What’s wrong with the printer — I’m on deadline! What is that funny bump growing on my arm? Has it always been there? When will someone shut off that damn car alarm?!
What if…Why…When…How…Questions without answers. Questions that lead to worst-case fears. Questions that make me crazy. And, of course, they get louder and more insistent the minute I crawl into bed at night and turn off the lights. It’s an eternal litany from hell.
According to Ethan Kross, psychologist, professor at the University of Michigan, and author of Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It, “A lot of the time, our inner voice serves us well; we can work through a problem and move on. If we find that we access that inner voice, and we start getting stuck, it turns into chatter.” — inverse.com.
