Rumination is characterized by repetitive, excessive ideas that disrupt other types of thinking. What is rumination, its effects, and how can you deal with it?
Most people have had the experience of obsessing about something distressing that happened during the course of their day. It may have been something someone said that hit you, a moment where you wished you had the ideal response, or a problem that replays itself in your head over and over with no acceptable answer in sight.
Rumination occurs when these thoughts become more gloomy and brooding. While everyone experiences rumination from time to time, it can exacerbate stress to the point of causing extra issues. Rumination has been linked to a variety of deleterious impacts on the mind and body.
Unfortunately, when people are worried, these repetitive thoughts are easy to fall into. This tendency frequently begins with the mere desire to address people’s issues.
What are the effects of rumination, and how can you deal with it?
Signs of Rumination
Rumination is characterized by negative thought processes that are either immersive or repeated. When trying to analyze their emotions, many people fall into rumination, yet they become “stuck” in negative patterns of rehashing past wounds without advancing toward answers or feelings of resolution.
Rumination has a more negative bent, frequently involving pessimism and cognitive errors, and focuses primarily on the negative aspects of a situation. Emotional processing, on the other hand, may begin in this manner but eventually leads to acceptance and release of negative emotions, whereas ruminating leaves you “stuck.”
The following are general indicators that you may have fallen into the trap of rumination:
- Concentrating on a problem for longer than a few minutes
- Feeling much worse than you did before
- Showing no progress in accepting and moving on, and we are no closer to a feasible solution.
It is natural to ruminate over things from time to time, especially if you recall a difficult or upsetting event. People may ruminate because they feel that by thinking about an issue continuously, they will be able to solve it or obtain insight. Having a history of trauma or now dealing with difficult conditions might also contribute to ruminating.
3 Ways Rumination Affects Our Lives
Rumination has been linked to a variety of mental health issues like anxiety, depression, and PTSD. These conditions can cause rumination, but having these recurring thoughts can also cause or worsen the symptoms of these conditions. Other effects of rumination include:
- Negative Frame of Mind: Rumination is thought to have a negative effect by increasing depression and unhappiness. This is not only unpleasant in and of itself, but according to what we know about optimism and pessimism, this negative attitude of mind has a whole new set of implications.
- Less Proactive Behaviour: While people may ruminate to work through an issue and find a solution, research has shown that excessive rumination is related to less proactive behavior, increased disengagement from problems, and an even more negative state of mind as a result. This suggests that rumination can contribute to a negative spiral.
- Self-sabotage: Studies have connected rumination to negative coping practices such as binge eating. Self-destructive coping behaviors can increase stress, sustaining a negative and harmful cycle.
Rumination also focuses on the sense of helplessness that can emerge from being unable to change what has already occurred.
How Can You Cope With Rumination?
Maintain an Open Mind
What genuinely bothers us about others is really a reflection of what we don’t accept in ourselves. Can you rely on a comparable experience in yourself to help you better grasp the other person’s perspective and the reasoning behind what they did when you think about what they did to make you angry? Can you relate with them even if you don’t completely agree with them? The loving-kindness self-talk can be an excellent technique for forgiveness and letting go, as well as for combating ruminating.
Make a plan to act
Rather than repeating the same negative thinking over and over, take that thought and build a plan to solve it. Outline each step you need to take to solve the problem in your thoughts, or write it down on paper. Be as descriptive as possible while remaining realistic in your expectations. This will interrupt your rumination. It will also assist you in moving on in your endeavor to remove a negative thought from your mind permanently.
Set Boundaries
Learn how to utilize each contact to learn something about yourself and the other person in order to modify the way things go in the future. Look at what happened through the lens of change—not to blame the other person for hurting you, but to find solutions that will avoid the same thing from happening again. Where could you have said no earlier, or where could you have protected yourself better in the future? Rather than being hurt or furious, approach the situation with power and understanding.
Evaluate your thoughts
We frequently ruminate when we believe we have made a huge mistake or when something awful has occurred to us for which we feel responsible. If you find yourself lingering on a problematic topic, consider putting it into context. Thinking about how your disturbing notion may be incorrect may help you stop ruminating since you recognize the thought makes no sense.
Personal reflection can be a beneficial approach to absorb feelings and experiences, but it can be detrimental to your mental health if it becomes rumination. If you believe that rumination is impacting your mental health, there are resources available to assist you.