How does the brain “zone out” and we ignore everything around us and think about absolutely nothing?
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I think it is related to your experiences. Your brain collects data and experience and learns how to navigate in life according to it. If you are talking about unaware zoning out. It might be your coping mechanism.
I do also believe that ADHD can be triggered that way, especially with coping experiences in childhood. It is the way your brain is conditioned to work. And it is being conditioned most effectively in your childhood. So some of people just zone out to feel comfortable and safe. That is how they cope.
Talking about aware zoning out. Like doing it on purpose. It is kinda intriguing how that works. Well, there are a form of meditation when you can think absolutely nothing. There is this thing, haven’t researched it much, but there are certain waves your brain operates upon. Like alpha, theta, beta and so on. And those waves determines your brain activity, what parts of the brain works and how they communicate with each other or smth like that. While doing meditation it is scientifically proved to change those waves in your brain. If I remember correctly Beta waves induces a state when you feel the most awake and tend to prioritize efficiency, that way your mind is racing and you might be unaware of that. While something like alpha brain waves induces relaxation and specifically helps with not thinking. So that is very interesting
There is also a different perspective. Like our brain activity is basically electric impulses and your thoughts are basically an energy. That might suggest that our awareness is able to control how much energy and where it flows. Also if our thoughts is energy, that means, if we direct that energy in to something we have experienced, something that might have been traumatic – your brain recognizes some kind of pattern that energy caused and turns on coping mechanism.
We are really complex beings. But what actually makes it complex is our thoughts and the need to express and question everything.
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