The discussion around rumination/compulsions you *like* is very interesting. 🤔 One of my hobbies is creative writing. I’ve always been susceptible to daydreaming. Finding a balance of thinking about stories as a kind of planning rather than a form of brain entertainment that keeps me from doing the things I actually want to do is difficult. It’s very true that creating those habits of staying in my head can add to other compulsions as well. I wonder if other writers have this challenge.

Catching the replay

My biggest take away from this live stream was that, it seems like what we spend alot of time doing in our heads, and how we interact with experiences, just becomes a fully automated program eventually as the brain becomes more efficient at that. And sometimes we install unhelpful programs by accident, maybe they were needed before but they longer serve us now - yet they keep running against our will. For example maybe there was a time where we were in "survival" mode and stressing alot because of circumstances + lack of awareness about better coping ways, but after that stressful long period ended we kept being in a "survival" mode and still feeling stressed out, it just became the default way of being and living. Or the example that you gave about interacting with small uncertainties and ruminating usually, then we just learn to be good at ruminating and the content is really irrelevant by this point - it's just how the brain processes any uncertainty now with this program, by ruminating. It makes alot of sense, hopefully I understood it correctly, If I did then would you say it would be correct to assume that we can all choose to be aware of our unhelpful "programs" and choose to install different ones, and with enough practice this will be our new default mode - eventually completely overriding the previous one?

Haha, heard your comment on no pests in the garden, listening to this while killing hundreds of slugs

@Markfreeman how to stop having conversations in ur head . sometimes i dont even realise it but when i do i try to focus in real life.also i have this weird physical sensation in my brain and its hard to concentrate.what can i do with this sensation?

Mark please help me i am really struggling. I am wondering if i am using acceptance as a compulsion. I dont get the difference between using acceptance as a compulsion and practicing acceptance properly. What should i do about this. It just gets to overwhelming for me

I get anxiety when ever I get a stuffy nose it drives me craZy we’re i feel like I need medication what can I do about it cuz the stuffy nose done go away just cuz u have anxiety so for 3 weeks am anxious and anxiety ever night tryna figure out how or what to do to get me to breath ??