53: Say Yes to the Stress
Well, it’s been the longest week of the longest month of the longest year ever. Which means, naturally, we’re puttering at our highest levels. But why? What is it about the human brain that we can so quickly and easily address our nervous energy just by doing the dishes?
A listener sent us an article from Wired which explained the cognitive impact of repetitive tasks, which can have a kind of meditative effect, also known as “behavioral activation.”
Studies suggest that behavioral activation can help reregulate brain activity much the way mindful meditation does, by engaging the prefrontal cortex. “In a lot of ways, behavior is the method of changing brain function,” says Gollan.
Basically, it helps our brains take a break from spinning around and reacting and feeling and instead, helps us focus on explicit tasks. In doing so, a lot of folks fall into a kind of meditative state, with can lower your heart rate and slow your breathing.
Doing a big more research, I also found some support of my theory that stress-cleaning is about control over one’s domain. In this article from Vice, Darby Saxbe, an assistant professor of psychology at the USC said that cleaning “gives people a sense of mastery and control over their environment…Life is full of uncertainty and many situations are out of our hands, but at least we can assert our will on our living space. Clutter can be visually distracting, too, and serve as a nagging reminder of tasks and chores undone.”
Now of course, not everyone is soothed by cleaning — your soothing thing may be playing a game or going for a walk or whatever — but if you found yourself doing an extra amount of organizing or dusting last week (or uhhhh this entire year), it’s not just because you’re an oddball. It’s because you’re feeding your brain’s need to do something other than stew on your existential dread.
Listen to us pontificate on this subject and many more:
Plus, here are some links to things we talked about on the show, including:
Does bleaching yellow linens? There’s a bit of science behind that, too.
Why do pictures leave grody outlines on our apartment walls? Apparently, it’s soot. And since I’m a Certified Candle Bitch, this is not surprising.
Also, a listener tipped us off to these water bottle cleaning tablets when we asked about how to clean a hot water bottle. Maybe give them a spin?
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