An Ode to the Overthinkers

Action (left) vs. thinking (right)

Imagine being poolside on a hot summer's day. Ready to cool off, how do you approach the pool? Do you dive right in? Do you dip a toe in first? Or do you not get to the part where you go swimming in this make-believe scenario because you are stuck wondering how anyone could "approach" a pool when there are so many unknowns in this thought experiment? What is the temperature of the pool? Who are you there with? Why are you there? Meanwhile, everyone is having a great time at the pool party and you are off to the side thinking.

This is my life. Even as I write this blog post, my beautiful brain questions if I can do this. Do I have knowledge to share with the world? Is my unique perspective worth reading? What if no one reads this? What if a whole lot of people read this?

I am definitely an advocate for thinking. I don't think that's a controversial position to take. What I am not an advocate for is chatter. "Chatter consists of the cyclical negative thoughts and emotions that turn our singular capacity for introspection into a curse rather than a blessing" (1). In his book, aptly named Chatter, Ethan Kross outlines why chatter is such a problem and some tools that we can use to overcome this menace.

As a neuroscientist I find chatter pretty cool. It's an outcome of our brain "disconnecting from the world around us [to produce] a conversation in our minds" (1). This can be helpful when we need to plan or create, but not so helpful when we just want to have a good time at the pool party.

The tools Ethan describes that we can implement for ourselves can be boiled down into 3 broad categories - 1) they provide distance from the problem, 2) they provide perspective, or 3) they provide comfort.

An example of providing distance? Talk to yourself as if you were advising a friend. For example, maybe I'm stuck at the side of the pool, but if I were talking to a friend, my advice would be to put on some good tunes (T Swift perhaps?) and enjoy the sunny day (we don't get too many of those in Vancouver).

Perspective on the other hand is all about reframing your experience. I use this tool when I perform. I get nervous when I'm about to go on stage. Right on cue, all of the classic symptoms show up, a quick heartbeat, shallow breathing, and jittery energy. Ethan talks about these symptoms as being helpful. They arise to help us step up to the challenge. I reframe them as a sign that I am doing something that I care about, that is meaningful to me. Rather than think about it as nerves, I think about this extra jolt of energy as excitement.

The last tool I will touch upon is comfort. Use comfort to alleviate chatter. An example in the book is a ritual that is performed. My ritual to get me in the zone? I have a very specific playlist that I listen to depending on the task at hand. The songs immediately help me to focus, to rock the scientific world.

In science, the chatter can be very loud and annoying (this is how I imagine my family felt about me when I was trying to learn the violin). As scientists, we are on the cutting-edge of knowledge (someone put that on a bumper sticker). With that comes questioning. Is this a real finding? Was this the best experimental design that I could use? Is it too late to have coffee? (When writing papers, I'm pretty sure the answer is always no). But chatter isn't unique to scientists doing work at the bench. When we all engage with new information chatter can come creeping in.

Remember the attitude we discussed a couple of weeks ago - balancing openness to new ideas with skepticism? That is much easier when we use some of the tools that Ethan describes. Gaining perspective or distance from what our brains chat about helps us approach new information without getting stuck in a rut.

So whether we're conducting a new experiment, or just trying to figure out how to approach the pool, if we're struggling to take action, we can think about distance, perspective, and comfort. Some T Swift might help too.

Until next time, dream big, love fiercely, laugh often, and sparkle.

References:

1. Kross, Ethan. Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It. Crown, 2021.