The Default-Mode-Network: 3 Natural Ways To Decrease Activity and Improve Your Wellbeing
Understanding How To Alter Activity In Your Default-Mode-Network is Life Changing
The brain’s default-mode-network (DMN) consists of a group of regions that work collectively to create wandering thoughts in your mind. Scientists discovered it when they scanned the brains of people doing nothing in an MRI machine.
It turns out the brain’s “default” function when we’re not focused on anything is to start thinking about itself.
Moreover, researchers have found that the thoughts the default-mode network pushes out are of a particular nature: They’re self-referential, meaning they tell stories about who we are, who we’ve been, and who we want to be. Many have hypothesised that the DMN is an important part of our EGO.
Importantly, too, DMN activity increases and decreases as our focus changes. When we’re not focused on anything, activity goes up; when we are focused on something, it goes down. This is likely so we can focus on what we’re doing and not get bothered by unrelated thoughts.
The Significance of the DMN’s Role Can’t Be Underestimated
Anxiety, OCD, depression, and ADHD, mental health ailments that plague the general population, are hallmarked by a common thread: Uncomfortable, distressing, and distracting thoughts. All have been associated with higher-than-normal activity in the DMN and dysfunctional activity with other brain regions.
The thinking mind tends to be an unhappy one when left to its own devices, it seems. Many of us know this.
This said, decreasing DMN activity is of interest to anyone who suffers from uncomfortable or distressing thoughts.
Here are a few ways you can do this naturally:
1. Mindfulness Meditation
It’s easy to think of meditation as the art of doing nothing, but it’s actually the art of focus. During mindfulness meditation, the aim is not to get pulled into runaway thoughts. Each time you do, you non-judgmentally bring your focus back to your chosen “anchor”. This anchor can be the breath, an imagined place, or a particular sensation in the body.
People often give up on meditation because their thoughts keep bothering them, which is exactly why they should keep meditating. Over time, as you train your mind’s eye not to get caught up in thoughts, you’ll find your brain gets quieter and quieter. You can sit in peace, unbothered by thoughts that before sent you into spirals of anxiety (personal experience).
Why is this? Well, part of the reason we’re so bothered by our thoughts, and have so many of them, is because we invest so much time in them. Our default-mode-network has been conditioned over years and years to fire out thought. Rumination is a thought-based habit that can be unwound — if we break the cycle and retrain our DMN.
With a consistent meditation practice, studies have shown that default-mode-networks’ brain activity goes down, improving well-being.
2. Healthy Flow States
When we’re focused on a task that we enjoy or find challenging, we engage in what researchers call a flow state. People remark “losing themselves” in flow, probably because their default-mode network, dampened by consistent focus, is unable to churn out self-directed thoughts.
It can be refreshing and relaxing to have moments of flow in your day. I’ve been getting back into reading lately, and have enjoyed losing myself in fictional stories. It serves a nice break from my mind!
Unfortunately, many of us turn to unhealthy forms of flow to escape our inner critic. We take drugs or drink alcohol or endlessly scroll social media which serves us well in the short-term but with harsh rebound effects.
It’s important we engage in healthy flow states that relax us, develop our skills, or get us closer to our goals. Then we can come back to ourselves feeling proud, satisfied, and accomplished, which can counter some of the negative self-talk.
Give your thinking mind a break and find some (healthy) tasks to get lost in. Retrain a brain taught to always focus on itself by down-regulating the default-mode-network.
3. Time In Nature
Being in nature offers one thing that sitting in your bedroom and mulling over thoughts does not: Perspective.
By stepping outside our comfortably uncomfortable 4 walls, we mentally step outside the confines of our mind. We give our brain some substance to chew on in the form of sights, sounds and smells.
Moreover, “Awe”, the feeling of being taken aback and admiring a view, has been shown to decrease default-mode network activity and reduce self-referential thinking.
Some might read this and assume that to be awe-inspired means we need to have a canyon in our back garden or access to an airoplane to take us 40,000 feet in the air, but awe can be found all around us.
The realisation we are more than ourselves and are a part of a wider cosmic vastness is an awe-inspiring realisation to have.
Life is a miracle, when you think about it.
Getting outside helps remind me of this; lying in my bed and ruminating does the opposite. I start to believe my problems ARE the world; when there is so much more to life.
Final Thoughts
If you suffer from bothersome and distracting thoughts, implementing these practices can help you. I’m trying my best to take more walks, lose myself in books and fulfilling taks (like writing) and I set time aside to meditate.
This may sound like a lot, but 10 minutes of meditation a morning, a chapter of a book in the evening, and a short walk are all things we can add to our day. Start small and go from there.
You might think we’re just distracting ourselves from our internal strifes, but if rumination and overthinking made us feel better, wouldn’t our problems be solved by now?
When our thoughts are running (and ruining) our days, quieting our default-mode network can provide respite and reserve energy for intentional inner work.
Thank you for reading today’s article.