ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the core features of the doing mode of mind - mental time travel. The human capacity to travel to different times and places with the mind, when used consciously, enables us to effectively plan, learn from the past, and navigate through life. Rumination is an attempt to try to make sense of difficult emotions and unhappy memories through a process of analysis and problem solving. It is a goal-driven conceptual process of monitoring what is in relation to what is desired or feared with the intention of solving the problem. The themes of rumination are commonly past losses, mistakes, judgements, comparisons, 'whys', 'if onlys' - essentially asking unanswerable questions that tend to relate critically to the self. Emotional life is not a problem to be solved and yet the authors have a tendency to live as if it is.
