Addressing Rumination & Overthinking
Inside Out 2 recently became the highest grossing animated film …
Tell me we’re all anxious without telling me we’re all anxious.
…seems like a good time to talk about rumination!
Oftentimes when we are stuck in an anxiety spiral, the overthinking we are engaging in is a frantic grasp for control. It makes sense– there is so much we will experience in our lifetimes that is out of our control. Our minds get caught up in trying to create a sense of control, with the misguided agenda of avoiding pain.
Consider the following words:
“The more you try to control something, the more it controls you. Free yourself and let things take their own natural course”
– Leon Brown
Despite how uncomfortable anxiety and uncertainty can feel, if we can just allow it to BE instead of desperately trying to avoid the discomfort with mental gymnastics, we can move through the pain with less suffering.
This is where coping skills come in. This is where distress tolerance comes in. We’ve got to learn to sit with and breathe through the tough stuff rather than trying so hard to avoid it.
One of the best ways to interrupt mental spirals and rumination is to reconnect with the body. Go for a walk, hop in a cold shower, wash your face, drink some water, eat a snack, lay on the ground, hum or sing, stretch … choose the method of reconnecting with your body that feels easiest to access and/or most pleasurable to you.
For those who experience difficulty with thought-stopping and quickly switching gears into something physical, start with some mindfulness…
Instead of engaging with your thoughts directly, observe them from a distance. How would you characterize them? What is their speed? How heavy are they? What color are they? What emotions might be driving them?
Now move to your other senses. What do you notice in your body? What is currently happening with your breath? Can you take a moment to just focus on what you can hear? How about smells and tastes?
Once you work through your senses, transition to engaging in something physical as described above.
There seems to be some debate as to who is responsible for this wisdom … Erma Bobeck? Glenn Turner? Even Van Wilder thought this was worth repeating.
Chances are, whatever you are mentally toiling over is the kind of thing you can’t “think your way out of”. The act of worrying generally does more to increase suffering than it does to actually solve problems.
Part of the reason worrying doesn’t tend to get us anywhere, is that we are typically worrying about something in the past or the future, at the expense of the present moment. Doing something to reconnect with the present moment (think mindfulness & engaging the senses) is a great way to break out of rumination.
And if you must worry, do it intentionally. Yes, intentionally worry!
Set aside time to worry, and LIMIT it! Give yourself an hour max. Write your worries in a journal or note on your phone that you can close and compartmentalize when the time is up. Then, reconnect with the present moment, reconnect with your body, and TRUST that you will handle whatever experiences lie ahead of you once they become present.
