Up: [[Pay Attention MOC]] Related: [[Witness]] Created: 2024-12-01 Updated: 2025-12-06 ### Pros There’s a lot to be said in favour of the Default Mode Network (DMN), the network in our brain that finds and follows patterns. You couldn’t function in the world if you had to daily devote effort and thought to simple actions like brushing your teeth or making a coffee. Living according to patterns, which includes habits and beliefs, also helps you behave and respond with consistency. If not for consistency, you wouldn’t have a sense of identity or a recognizable personality. It’s that consistency that lets you say “This is who I am.” ### Cons The problem with living by patterns is that patterns can also be called mental grooves or ruts. It’s difficult to get out of those ruts to do the mental wandering that is needed for creative thought, or to get above them so that we can [[Witness]] when a pattern isn’t working for us. Our brains don’t get a lot of rest when we’re running on patterns. ### The Bottom Line The pattern-seeking, pattern-reinforcing network in our brain isn’t going away and there are many reasons we wouldn’t want it to. But we have to be able to disrupt the DMN if we want to have new insights, change our behaviour, or consider different beliefs. To do that, neuroscientists and authors of *Better in Every Sense* Norman Farb and Zindel Segal recommend that we learn to [[Toggle Between Habit and Sensation]].