5 Ways to Reduce Rumination

Do you ever find yourself constantly replaying something that you wish you’d done differently? That comment you made in a team meeting? Not standing up for yourself to a colleague? Going along with someone’s opinion when deep down you disagree?

That’s rumination. When you ruminate, you continuously overthink and replay events or situations that have happened in the past, and very often these situations tend to be negative or upsetting.

Although a healthy level of self-reflection is useful, the issue arises when you’re caught in a mental loop and it stops being productive, only serving to keep your mind in a negative space.

Research has actually linked rumination to mental health issues, with one study suggesting that replaying negative events is the biggest predictor of depression and anxiety and determines the level of stress people experience.

If you find yourself in a cycle of overthinking negative situations from the past, know that there are techniques which you can implement to break yourself out of that mental loop.

Five Ways to Reduce Rumination

1. Allocate Time to It

A practical strategy for reducing rumination is to allocate yourself a set amount of time to think about it. I’m not talking an hour, more like 5 minutes to vent, overthink or even journal and deep dive into every angle of the situation.

Personally, I use that time to do a whole lot of ‘if only’, ‘I should’ve’, ‘I could’ve’ and get it all out of my system. Then I switch to problem solving mode and try to think of just one step I can take to prevent it from happening again.

The key here is to limit yourself to the allocated time, process the information, extract any lessons learnt and then try to keep it moving.

2. Positive Distraction Techniques

My overthinking about past events and situations used to feel relentless. It was as if there was a non-stop loop in my brain replaying scenarios and having hypothetical arguments with people. When it became unbearable, my approach was to shout ‘Shut up!!’ with the hope that it would jolt my brain out of the cycle. The main issue with this ‘technique’ was that I sounded a smidge crazy, and without fail my mind would jump straight back onto that rumination treadmill after about 5 minutes.

More positive methods of distraction are much more effective, such as meditation and exercise. When meditating, inevitably your mind wanders, but the benefit of the practice is that it peacefully encourages you to bring your mind back to the present moment so that you focus less on the past. It’s a super useful skill to adopt which helps you to clear your mind, be present and find a place of calm.

Exercise is the ultimate distraction technique as it’s demanding and shifts your focus. It’s harder to relive that time you didn’t stand up for yourself at work when you’re simultaneously trying to fight for your life through a set of burpees. There’s also the added benefit that exercise produces endorphins and serotonin which help to boost your mood.

3. Put Things in Perspective

Many times rumination can be triggered by cognitive distortions or errors in thinking. Common errors include catastrophising, jumping to conclusions, overgeneralising and black and white thinking.

For example, you may receive one piece of constructive criticism about a section of a report you’ve produced, and then conclude that you’re a horrible writer and wholly inadequate at your job. You then ruminate on this feeling of total inadequacy, which is a massive overgeneralisation of the situation.

So being able to identify your common cognitive distortions can allow you to refute them and help put them into perspective.

In order to help put things in perspective, also question for a moment whether you’re being at all self-indulgent. Ruminating thoughts often happen when you’re worried about other people’s opinion of you. ‘I said that stupid comment at the party now everyone is going to think I’m an idiot.’ Relax! Trust and believe that everyone is way too focused on trying to live their own lives. If you knew how little other people actually thought of you, you’d probably be much less concerned.

4. Reach Out

When you find yourself caught in a mental loop, it can be extremely isolating as you get lost in your thoughts. In order to break yourself out of the cycle, consider reaching out to friend or someone close to the situation who can provide you with a different outlook.

An outside perspective can help loads, particularly if you’re questioning your own viewpoint. Not to mention, sometimes you really do just need a brain dump to get everything off your mind and spirit.

A word of warning though, be careful who you reach out to, as what isn’t useful is someone who just jumps on that ruminating bandwagon with you and feeds into your negativity!

5. Improve your Self-Esteem

Rumination causes you to fixate on the gap between what actually happened and what you wish had happened. Oftentimes focusing on this gap can lead to judgement as you start to wish that you had been more outspoken, more confident, more articulate, more whatever; and you find yourself in a cycle of negativity.

Improved self-esteem can help to create distance between perceived mistakes and how you feel about yourself. If you feel incompetent, rumination can reinforce that unhealthy view of yourself. But when you have healthy self-esteem, you can better differentiate between thoughts and feelings and who you are as a person.

Rumination is a common issue but one that can be stopped if you have some practical strategies to hand. It requires self-awareness of when you’re in that cycle and genuine effort to make a change. So the next time you find yourself in a negative mental loop, take a moment to stop and employ one of these strategies to help you snap you out of that cycle.