Am I in the Groove, a Rut, or on a Default Pathway?

When people say they’re “in the groove,” it usually means things are flowing—work feels smooth, energy is good, and life seems aligned. But when that groove hardens into repetition, it can turn into something very different: a rut. The same patterns, the same reactions, and the same stuck feelings repeat until they feel impossible to escape.

Neuroscientists now suggest this everyday metaphor may be surprisingly accurate. Our brains rely on what are called “default pathways.” These are the well-worn circuits that guide how we think, feel, and react. Most of the time, they’re efficient—like a record playing the song we know best. But if the track keeps skipping in the same place, we may find ourselves trapped in repetitive cycles of worry, fear, or unhealthy behavior.

This is where psychedelic-assisted therapy, particularly with psilocybin, is showing promise. Studies suggest that psilocybin can temporarily disrupt rigid default pathways, allowing the brain to create new connections and possibilities【source: PMC10032309】. Instead of being stuck in the rut of anxiety, depression, compulsion, or addiction people often describe a feeling of being lifted out of old loops and discovering more flexible, hopeful ways to think. 

One research team put it this way: psilocybin increases “entropy” in the brain—not chaos, but openness. It’s as if the record skips to a new track, or the hiker finds a fresh trail out of the canyon. For many, that shift doesn’t just fade when the session ends. With careful guidance and integration, it can mark the start of a more positive groove: a life with less stress and more freedom to choose how to respond.

Of course, this isn’t magic or instant. It requires safe settings, skilled support, and often more than one session. But the metaphor helps: if depression and anxiety are ruts, psilocybin therapy offers a chance to step out of the groove that no longer serves us and into one that does.

We are just at the beginning of understanding how and which of the many substances in mushrooms can be most helpful for different problems in different people. That is why Her Magic Mushroom Memoir tells this story not just as science, but as lived experience. To understand the “psychedelic renaissance,” we need both—the clinical data and the personal voices of those who know what it means to find themselves in a rut, and what it feels like to finally step into a better groove.