{"id":925,"date":"2015-08-10T01:35:14","date_gmt":"2015-08-10T08:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/?p=925"},"modified":"2015-08-01T15:31:03","modified_gmt":"2015-08-01T22:31:03","slug":"avoiding-rumination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/featured\/avoiding-rumination\/","title":{"rendered":"Avoiding Rumination"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Brain\"As defined by\u00a0psychologists<\/a>, rumination\u00a0is the compulsively focused attention on the symptoms of one’s distress, and on its possible causes and consequences, as opposed to its solutions. \u00a0Rumination is similar to\u00a0worry\u00a0except rumination focuses on bad feelings and experiences from the past, whereas worry is concerned with potential bad events in the future.\u00a0\u00a0<\/sup>Both rumination and worry are associated with\u00a0anxiety and other negative emotional states.<\/p>\n

In some circles rumination (or brooding) and worry are combined as “stinkin’ thinkin’.” \u00a0This affliction is often associated with depression and can lead to lack of action and stagnation in one’s life as well as a\u00a0general loss of joy. \u00a0A recent article in the\u00a0Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences<\/a> suggests that\u00a0experiencing nature not only helps resolve the issue of rumination, but the\u00a0change can see seen in a\u00a0brain scan.<\/p>\n

Stanford University researchers had 38 men and women fill out questionnaires\u00a0about\u00a0their tendency to ruminate. Next the study participants had their brains scanned to determine the activity in their \u00a0subgenual prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain associated with rumination. \u00a0Half of the study\u00a0participants then went on a 90 minute walk in a natural setting and half\u00a0went on a 90 minute walk in an urban setting.<\/p>\n

Not only did the nature walkers report less ruminating during their walk, a follow-up brain scan showed less activity in the\u00a0subgenual prefrontal cortex. \u00a0No such improvement was seen in the urban walkers. \u00a0The researchers said: “This study reveals a pathway by which nature experience may improve mental wellbeing, and suggests that accessible natural areas within urban contexts may be a critical resource for mental health in our rapidly urbanizing world.”<\/p>\n

Many other studies, some of which I have discussed in this blog, have shown the positive mental aspects\u00a0of spending time in natural surrounding. \u00a0This study takes the research a step further by showing how brain function changes with nature activity in a way that helps resolve one precursor for depression.<\/p>\n

The Bottom Line<\/h1>\n

If you feel overwhelmed and your brain is working overtime and getting nowhere, \u00a0it’s time to find a quiet natural place\u00a0and take a walk. \u00a0This study found significant improvements after 90 minutes of walking, so give it a try \u2013\u00a0there is no downside.<\/p>\n

Please Share<\/h1>\n

#rumination #nature #depression<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As defined by\u00a0psychologists, rumination\u00a0is the compulsively focused attention on the symptoms of one’s distress, and on its possible causes and consequences, as opposed to its solutions. \u00a0Rumination is similar to\u00a0worry\u00a0except rumination focuses on bad feelings and experiences from the past, whereas worry is concerned with potential bad events in the future.\u00a0\u00a0Both rumination and worry are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9,22,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-health","category-mental","category-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=925"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":940,"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/925\/revisions\/940"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explore.globalcreations.com\/theblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}