Reading The Happiness Hypothesis recently, I was struck by one of the research’s conclusions. Essentially, our conscious, rational, verbal mind is what we depend on to explain things and find reasons for things– whether they be external phenomena or internal thoughts & feelings. The problem is that it’s so keen on doing its job that it will keep on doing so even when it has absolutely no grounds to stand on. Essentially, rather than answer “I don’t know”, it’ll start making things up.

Imagine you’re feeling slightly irritable, or a bit blue & low. This could be triggered by any number of slight biochemical changes, with causes ranging from what you ate that morning; to a slight itch you’re not consciously aware of; or a past experience your brain associates to a certain song. In fact, let’s take this last example.

Let’s say a song comes on the radio which your mind subconsciously linked to a past heartbreak, romantic failure, disappointment. You don’t consciously realize the song is playing; but the feelings well up. You come to realize that you’re feeling blue, low, failed. You ask yourself why that is. Your verbal processor (which some experts have now come to call the “confabulator” because of its mythomaniacal tendencies) will search for the source of that feeling (What could be making me feel this way? there must be a reason–Let’s see, what have I failed at recently?)

And of course, it will find plenty of things it can beat you up about. And even if it finds no obvious, immediate reasons, it will start going back further in time making things up out of thin air. But it will do so with such aplomb, with such certainty, that you will come to feel they are solidly true. Which will, of course, make the feeling even worse. And the cycle goes on.

This process is vividly described and explained in The Mindful Way Through Depression, one of the most brilliant works in this field, and a must-read for anyone with either a history of blues, or who wants to help someone through them.

It was also a key finding of the research on women & happiness “women who think too much”– that those who ruminated more were significantly less happy; and that knowing how to distract yourself from those ruminations & snap out of a downward spiral was key.

So what do you do? Well, often, if no immediate cause jumps out at you, if there’s nothing obivous to fix, ignore it. Rather than dig until it gets really bad, put it on the shelf. Either the cause will emerge, or the feeling itself will pass.