

Generally, the more people ruminate, the less effective they are at problem solving. Not every rumination topic is appropriate for this strategy but catch any that are.ĭistinguish between ruminating and problem solving. Occasionally you might have a useful insight while ruminating, but mostly it’s avoidance coping.
#DEFINE RUMINATING THOUGHTS TV#
You can even try imagining an ultra-neurotic TV character version of yourself.

If applicable, try to see the irony in being both narcissistic and insecure, rather than viewing it as an indictment on your character. Do you expect things to always go your way? Do you tend to believe people are scrutinizing you when, in reality, they’re probably thinking about themselves? Do you spend time comparing yourself to business superstars or celebrities? Entitlement and personalizing can indicate that you tend to think the world revolves around you. Look for any subtle entitlement or self-absorption hidden in your ruminations. Recognizing the absurdity in some of your reactions can also help you take them less seriously.
#DEFINE RUMINATING THOUGHTS SERIES#
So instead of saying “I’m inadequate,” you might say, “I’m feeling like I’m inadequate.” You can even be more light-hearted about it: “Oh, that’s just my ruminating mind overheating again.” You and Your Team Series Decision Making One way to start to get this distance is by labeling what’s running through your head as thoughts and feelings, a tactic described in this article on emotional agility. For instance, you might feel concerned about how you’re perceived by people who have no impact on your success, get hung up about very small amounts of money, or see yourself as an underachiever despite the fact that objectively you’re doing very well.

Get psychological di stance. Next, you need to put some psychological distance between you and the things you ruminate about. Most heavy ruminators lean towards one or the other of these. Notice if the dominant pattern of your rumination is blaming yourself or blaming others.

The good news is that there are effective solutions for breaking yourself out of this rut, and they’re simpler than you might think. It’s closely linked to poor problem-solving, anxiety, and depression. Prompted by this one event, you begin to chastise yourself for not being more of something…organized, ambitious, smart, disciplined, or charismatic. A ruminative reaction to an event often triggers memories of similar situations from the past and an unproductive focus on the gap between the real and ideal self. While we worry about what might occur in the future, we ruminate about events that have already happened. Overthinking in this way is called rumination. You wish you hadn’t dropped the ball with that potential client. You wish you’d volunteered for that project that’s now winning accolades. Do you ever find yourself endlessly mentally replaying situations in which you wish you’d performed differently? You wish you hadn’t said that dumb thing.
