June 23, 2015
(THE BOOK) Chapter 35: Gumchewing
Ever chew gum for too long?
Until it’s a flavorless wad, your jaws are weary, and you wonder “Why is this junk still in my mouth?”
We do this all the time with our minds.
We chew the same thoughts over and over and over.
We give this habit different names: worrying, obsessing, persevoration.
They all amount to the same thing — a kind of futile mental gumchewing.
They’re not defenses, strictly speaking, but these habits of mind clearly serve a defensive function.
They’re one of monkeymind’s favorite ways of trying to control feelings.
Think about this long enough, monkeymind whispers, and you’ll figure things out, and then you’ll feel better.
But you don’t.
You don’t figure things out, you just keep chewing endlessly.
And you don’t feel better, you feel worse.
That’s because mental gumchewing is not analysis (which leads to clarity), or problem-solving (which produces solutions), or planning (which fosters discipline), or even venting (which discharges feelings and brings emotional relief).
It’s not even thinking, if we define thinking as using your mind to consider something carefully.
Gumchewing isn’t using your mind; it’s allowing your mind to use you.
It’s unconscious, automatic, mindless. Also dysfunctional, which means it won’t do you any good at all.
And the harm it does is considerable. It can create anxiety and depression where neither existed before, by keeping your attention focused mainly on problems and pain.
Where you put your attention is what grows, someone once said. Gumchewing keeps inflating pain and problems until you can’t think of anything else.
It’s like scratching an itch and making it worse.
Or like picking through garbage expecting to find diamonds.
June 24th, 2015 at 6:55 am
Great analogy, Steve!
June 24th, 2015 at 8:00 am
Thanks, Walt. 🙂
June 24th, 2015 at 7:58 am
I’m thinking that the most insidious result of ‘gumchewing’ is that we recycle our insular worldview so excessively that we begin to believe it is the ‘Truth,’ and fend off any information that contradicts it = a self-inflicted learning disability, no?
June 24th, 2015 at 8:06 am
Pretty much. I hesitate to call our learning disability “self-inflicted,” though, since that seems to imply choice. I don’t think we have any choice in this, since our overgrown brains basically make it inevitable. Plus we already feel guilty about so much that’s not really our fault (like not being omnipotent) that I hesitate to add anything to that burden. I’d rather say we’re basically screwed by our own neurobiology and have to work like hell to undo the effects of the screwing.
June 24th, 2015 at 8:33 am
Yes: a design-flaw, to be sure!
June 24th, 2015 at 12:26 pm
Awesome new chapter! Love it and love the gum chewing analogy!
June 24th, 2015 at 12:29 pm
Thanks, Lisa. 🙂