Where do you go when you’re not doing anything?
When you’re staring out the window, driving on a familiar highway, or lying in bed in the dark, your mind isn’t empty. It goes to a specific place. It wanders through the hallways of your past, rehearses conversations for the future, and, most importantly, it tells itself stories about who you are. It is the relentless, ever-present narrator of your life.
For centuries, we called this the “self,” the “ego,” the ghost in the machine. Now, thanks to neuroimaging, we know the ghost has an address. It is a large-scale brain network called the Default Mode Network (DMN).
The DMN is a collection of distinct brain regions—including the medial prefrontal cortex (the hub of self-referential thought), the posterior cingulate cortex (the integrator of memory and emotion), and the hippocampus (the memory archivist)—that all activate in perfect synchrony when your brain is not focused on an external task. Its primary job? To construct and maintain your coherent sense of self.
The DMN is your brain’s storyteller. It is the physical, biological architecture of your internal monologue.
When a client says they feel “stuck,” this is not a metaphor. Their Default Mode Network is literally, physically, and electrochemically stuck in a maladaptive, self-destructive narrative pattern.
A healthy, flexible DMN is a masterpiece of evolution. It allows you to reflect on your past, envision your future, and hold a stable and coherent sense of identity. It weaves the raw, chaotic data of your life into a meaningful story.
But for many of us, especially those with a history of trauma or who are neurodivergent, the storyteller has become a saboteur. The DMN can get “stuck” in rigid, repetitive, and deeply self-critical loops. It becomes a prison of narrative.
In C-PTSD, the DMN is a time machine stuck in the past, forced to replay your most shameful and terrifying memories on a constant, torturous loop.
In Anxiety, the DMN is a catastrophic future-simulation machine, generating an endless stream of “what if” scenarios, each more terrifying than the last.
In Depression, the DMN is a bleak and hopeless novelist, writing the same gray, lifeless story over and over again, convincing you that nothing will ever change.
When a client says they feel “stuck,” this is not a metaphor. Their Default Mode Network is literally, physically, and electrochemically stuck in a maladaptive, self-destructive narrative pattern.
You cannot “out-think” a stuck DMN. Trying to use top-down logic to fight a deeply encoded, bottom-up story is like trying to fight a ghost with a baseball bat. It’s the wrong tool for the job. Our entire therapeutic model is designed to be a targeted, neurobiological intervention to disrupt and re-pattern a rigid DMN.
1. Creating the Conditions for a Rewrite (Safety First): A threatened brain cannot write a new story; it can only replay old survival scripts. The DMN becomes most rigid and self-critical when the nervous system is in a state of threat. By using Polyvagal Theory to create a state of profound neuroceptive safety, we create the biological conditions for the DMN to become flexible and open to new information. A safe nervous system is the fertile ground in which a new story can grow.
2. Introducing New Data (The Mismatch Experience): A stuck story survives by ignoring all contradictory evidence. Through our Tiered Narrative Inquiry, we act as detectives, helping the client uncover “mismatch” experiences from their own life—moments of resilience, strength, and connection that the old, self-critical story cannot account for. This new data creates a cognitive dissonance that begins to destabilize the old narrative.
3. Facilitating the “Aha!” Moment (The New Pathway): This new data, combined with the safety of the therapeutic alliance, allows the brain to do what it does best: update its own story. The “aha!” moment of insight is the subjective experience of the DMN breaking out of its old, rigid pattern and forging a new, more complex, and more compassionate neural pathway. We are not just changing a client’s mind. We are providing the conditions for their brain to physically change its own structure.
Part of: The ScienceHub | Explore the Full Enlitens Interview Model
Yes, that’s a perfect way to describe one of its functions. The “inner critic” is the subjective experience of a DMN that has been conditioned, often by trauma, to adopt a self-attacking narrative as a misguided survival strategy (“If I hate myself first, it will hurt less when others do”). Our work is not about arguing with the critic, but about understanding its origins and providing the DMN with new, more accurate data so it can write a new, more compassionate script.
This is a deeply relatable desire. While you can’t turn it “off” completely, you can give it a rest. Activities that require intense, present-moment focus on an external task—often called “flow states”—temporarily deactivate the DMN. This is why things like playing a musical instrument, rock climbing, or being deeply engrossed in a creative project can feel like such a relief from anxiety. They provide a vacation from the relentless storyteller. Part of our work is helping you find more ways to intentionally access these states.
This is a fantastic question. Both modalities are powerful DMN interventions. Mindfulness meditation is a practice of training your attention to observe your thoughts without getting caught up in them, functionally separating your “self” from the DMN’s stories. Psychedelics are a more direct, chemical intervention. Compounds like psilocybin dramatically decrease connectivity within the DMN, essentially forcing the rigid storyteller to “reboot.” Groundbreaking new research has shown that non-hallucinogenic analogs can produce the same effects by targeting the 5-HT2A serotonin receptor. This shifts the future of this work from the mystical to the medicinal, confirming that the goal is a precise, neurobiological intervention—the core ethos of the Enlitens model.
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The narrator in your head may feel like an all-powerful author, but it is not. It is a dynamic, living system that is capable of profound change. The Enlitens Interview is designed to help you become a collaborative co-author of your own story.
Take one second. That’s all I’m asking.
Do not try to “calm down.” Do not try to “fix it.” Do not listen to the voice screaming that you need to do something right now.
Just be here, with me, for one single breath.
My name is Liz. I’ve spent years working overnight in the ER, sitting with people on what was often the worst night of their entire lives. I have sat in the eye of the hurricane, and I can tell you with absolute certainty that the chaos you feel right now is not the truth.
It is a storm in your nervous system. And a storm is just a weather pattern. It is not you. It is not permanent. And you do not have to navigate it alone.
Right now, your brain’s alarm system is screaming. The logical part of your brain has been taken offline. That is a normal, brilliant, biological survival response. But you and I are going to bring it back online, together.
We are going to do one, simple, physical thing. This is not a bulls*hit mindfulness exercise. This is a direct, manual override for your nervous system.
Place your hand on your chest.
Can you feel that? The rise and fall. The rhythm. That is the anchor. That is the proof that you are here, in this moment, and you are alive.
Keep your hand there.
Now, we are going to make one choice. The storm is telling you there are a million overwhelming things you have to do. That is a lie. There are only three choices right now, and you only need to pick one.
This is the button you push when you need the paramedics or the police to show up. This is the “bring the fire truck” button.
This is the national, 24/7 lifeline. It is free, it is confidential, and it is staffed by trained counselors who are ready to listen without judgment. This is the “I need a lifeline” button.
Behavioral Health Response (BHR) is our community’s lifeline. They provide free, confidential telephone counseling and can connect you with local resources. This is the “I need a local guide” button.