It’s a dilemma much older than the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, one that extends at least as far back as the modernist literary canon: How do we go about not thinking about the thing we’re actively telling ourselves not to think about? It’s the question at the heart of the new solo single from Lake Street Dive co-founder and bassist Bridget Kearney, who invokes a quote from Dostoevsky to illustrate the origins of the soulfully retrospective and, ironically, fairly meditative “Don’t Think About the Polar Bear”: “Try to pose for yourself this task: not to think of a polar bear, and you will see that the cursed thing will come to mind every minute.”
“Last year I fell in love with someone who was really into meditation, and so I tried for the first time in my life to get into meditation,” Kearney shares, telling us how the single came together. “But of course I was in the early stages of new love, and so closing my eyes and trying to focus on my breath was inevitably interrupted by wonderful, happy thoughts about him and our future together. Which was very pleasant...but not really meditation. When things eventually unraveled between us, I was experiencing what I would call my first ‘mindful’ breakup. I was wallowing in the same old thought spirals that come with every breakup, but also aware of my own thoughts in a brand new way. Why can’t I just focus on my breath and stop thinking about this guy!?
“I happened to hear a podcast about a psychological phenomenon called ‘Ironic Process Theory,’” she continues, “otherwise known as the ‘white bear problem.’ The idea being that when you’re actively trying not to think about something, you’re actually much more likely to think about it. This resonated with me, and I decided to write a song about it, with a polar bear standing in for my meditation enthusiast ex.”
The track comes with a video that was directed and animated by Mertcan Mertbilek and Yasemin Yasu, which brings the titular polar bear and aforementioned themes to life as the poor mammal just can’t seem to shake certain pleasant memories. Check it out below.
