I remember hearing that the reason a song gets stuck in your head is because a certain part of your brain sees it as a problem to be solved.

You always get a song stuck in your head when you can’t remember all the parts of it.

Your brain keeps going over the song, hoping that by repeating it, you’ll somehow find the missing piece and feel like it’s resolved.

That’s essentially the principle behind rumination.

We keep revisiting the same thoughts, over and over, hoping that with enough repetitions, we’ll break through and find the missing information, so we can feel complete.

The problem with getting a song stuck in your head is that you never knew all the words in the first place.

Ruminating—going over and over the song—won’t provide any new information. Your brain thinks the solution is in there, but it’s not.

It’s like my brain is saying, “We’re going to figure this song out!”

And I’m like, “Please don’t, I don’t care about the song.”

But my brain insists, “Don’t worry, I got this. You just keep going, we’ll play this in the background until we solve it.”

It’s really hard to tell my brain, “No, this is not a good use of time. Please stop.”

This is where the real suffering comes from in rumination: your brain keeps going over the same thing, looking for a better conclusion. The problem is, there isn’t one.

To dive deeper into this topic, check out the original video here: