01:27 Default mode 04:03 Separating emotions and thoughts 07:05 Counseling, meditation, walking 08:34 ON/OFF of default mode 10:11 If you have a mental illness 11:02 Talking about the brain Today I will talk about the theme of "Default mode network (DMN) and mindfulness". It's difficult! You've never heard of the default mode network, have you? You may have heard of mindfulness. Mindfulness is popular, but it's difficult for me to explain it, and I didn't really understand it myself. I thought it was a popular word, but this time I hurt my back. It hurt and I woke up in the middle of the night, and I was like, woo woo. I thought, "Oh, that's right, I'll try mindfulness myself," and I studied it, or rather, I was somehow conscious of it. Then I thought, maybe it's a simple thing? I realized that I was doing mindfulness myself. I'll talk about that. The theme is how to deal with emotions and pain. ■ Default mode Default mode is the state your brain is in when you are spaced out. The brain is a network. It might be helpful to imagine it as an airport. Planes are constantly flying around airports all over the world. The brain is like the Internet. The Internet is also a network, so information is constantly flying from smartphones to servers, and from those servers to other smartphones. This constantly moving network is the brain itself. The brain is always moving. Even when you are sleeping or not thinking about anything, your brain is still moving, so if you space out, various thoughts naturally come to mind. If A comes to mind, then B, and if you space out again, C comes to mind. This is called default mode, and the state of the brain and the network that are active in default mode are called the "default mode network." When the default mode network is OFF, you are thinking normally, concentrating, or working on something. When it is ON, various thoughts come to mind and disappear, and they come to mind and disappear again, and the brain plays an association game on its own. What does this do? The brain automatically organizes and sorts memories. It is said to help memory consolidation. However, I think many patients just keep thinking about unpleasant things. Unpleasant things keep coming to mind, and they become anxious thinking, "What if that happens?", "I'll be anxious if I do this?", and "There might be more like this." When people with anxiety disorders get on the train, they may unconsciously associate with themselves that they might have an attack like that time and be in pain, or they may feel anxious at an early stage that they might have another attack. This is anticipatory anxiety. People who have had trauma or been attacked on a night road may feel anxious when walking a similar road at night because they remember that time. They may feel anxious just because it's night. This kind of association game happens. It's easy to happen if you're in a daze. ■Separate emotions from thoughts So, how can we make use of this therapeutically? How can we make use of it when the default mode is ON? It's about turning it OFF. One way to do this is to "separate emotions from thoughts." The part of the brain that separates emotions and thinks, "Oh, I feel anxious," "I still feel anxious," "I feel even more anxious," "I'm back to normal," and the other part of the brain that separates emotions are separated into cognition and behavior. This helps organize your mind. It's good to organize things related to cognitive behavior and normal thoughts and ideas. You organize and plan things like, "Let's do this for A, let's do this for B, let's do this for C, let's do this for D," and decide what not to do. For me, I think, "Oh, I have to work again today, I'm tired, I want to drink alcohol, but I'll get fat, I really want to eat something sweet, if I have time at lunchtime, I might go buy some daifuku," while walking in the morning. Then, it's all messy, so when I think clearly, I think, "My back hurts, but I'll just bear with it for the next three months for the time being," about my physical health. "I have XX people booked today, so I have some free time, so I'll just do this much during the day in preparation for tomorrow," and "I'll definitely film one YouTube video today." By organizing in this way, you will calm down. Then, this messy thing will go like this, A → B → C → D, and your mind will return to its default mode, but organized. Organizing, planning, and deciding what not to do are also called verbalization, conceptualization, and cognitive restructuring. By actively working to organize your mind, you can organize your anxiety and thoughts. When it comes to emotions, it is also important to just look at them. Looking at them will help you rest. Looking