Rumination

Rumination is like when a driver is lost on a path and keeps circling back to the same starting point, and with these futile rotations, not only does not find the way but also becomes more frustrated, angry, or tired. The same thing happens in our mental rumination; we spin aimlessly and in vain, and as a result, not only do we not find a solution to our problem, but we become more lost and gradually tired and disheartened from finding a way. In other words, rumination is a series of intrusive thoughts that attack our minds, and we surrender to them, going along with these intrusive thoughts for moments, hours, or even days and months.

There are several important things we can do to escape rumination and instead face it head-on and separate ourselves from it:

First, identify the issue that has caused your rumination: See what has so occupied your mind, is there really an issue that has engaged you so much! Because in many cases, when you pay attention, you see that you are ruminating about something that does not exist in reality; it is mental conclusions that you experienced a long time ago and were hurt by, and with the slightest stimulus, they return us to those past states, and with fear, they lead us into a cycle of repetitive and futile thoughts called rumination. But sometimes there may really be an issue, in which case we need to see if with these repetitive thoughts, we reach a solution, awareness of whether the answer to this problem is in these thoughts or not can greatly help us to get out of this fruitless cycle, just like a driver who stops for a moment and tells himself, ‘I’ve circled this path several times, but I’ve returned to the same spot, so this time I’ll try a path I haven’t tried before and maybe find relief from here.’

Pause: As I mentioned above, wait a few moments before the next thought comes and you open the door to it; stand behind the door and see what the previous guest (previous thought) you let in has done and what you should do with this uninvited guest before opening the door to another intrusive thought. For example, when the thought comes to you that you are rejected and not liked by your friend, other thoughts immediately rush in to reinforce this thought, but your pause takes the power away from them; you stop and tell yourself why do I think like this, is it really true? It may be wrong for various reasons such as…. And here you stop in front of the door and prevent the entry of the next thought that wants to force its way in and create rumination and separation from it.

Having self compassion: Spending hours ruminating in your mind can make you angry, in fact, you become angry and annoyed with yourself and inadvertently enter another loop, but if you have compassion for yourself and instead of blaming yourself, you compassionately admit that these are distressing thoughts and sometimes can’t be stopped, but you try to reduce them, in fact, you have prevented another rumination from coming to you, and you are also increasing your power against intrusive thoughts.

Breathing exercises: The most effective and efficient solution for rumination is breathing exercises. In fact, following our breaths instead of our thoughts causes our parasympathetic system to become active and brings our body and mind out of the defensive state, and we come out of contraction automatically, and negative thoughts become less vivid, and even in some cases, with regular practice, our sense of gratitude increases, and positive and realistic thoughts replace previous thoughts, and every time we want to enter rumination again, these positive thoughts help us.