Reducing Rumination
Musings From a Raging Academic
Being caught under rumination is very much like being stuck on an endless record, where the lyrics repeat over and over. It’s fascinating to be writing about this, as I work my way through my second bout of graduate school, and work towards becoming a potential therapist.
Sometimes, we think that replaying this ruminating record will generate new insights. This is simply not the case, as we’ve already exhausted the number of replays and the original song starts to lose meaning.
If you replayed the song once or twice, then this is fine — but when you replay it so many times that it annoys you and interferes with your daily living, it is not particularly helpful.
In other words, we’re caught in a cycle. To get out of the cycle, we need an escape route. Think of a fire. When a fire hits home, we have to escape, otherwise we will get caught in the flames.
It’s ideal to have made a proactive fire safety escape plan, but in the event that we don’t have fire escape plan, then we have to craft one during the fire itself.
To be able to craft an escape plan means that you are incredibly strong — most people would not be able to do it, but in many cases it can be done. Despite the battles ravaging your mind, you’ll willing to take steps to get outside.
For example, I’ll list a variety of activities that could reduce the level of rumination, until you get to that long-term professional support:
- Generating a list of positive self-affirmation statements, where you can read it during the darkest of days to remind yourself of your self-worth
- Engaging with thought records, to determine if you are falling under the spell of a potential cognitive distortion
- Gradually training yourself to think in the present tense, such as through mindfulness activities
- Putting together a list of potential distractions that can become short-term coping mechanisms, like watching a movie, or writing a novel
While these are not the only strategies out there, they are totally customizable to your individual needs, regardless of age. If you’re not a fan of self-affirming statements, perhaps you can open up an Word document that lists all your professional and interpersonal accomplishments, kind of like a resume.
If you’re not a fan of thought records, perhaps you can do research on the types of cognitive distortions out there and find customizable worksheets as you find out more.
If you don’t like mindfulness or are someone who has had a bad experience with mindfulness, perhaps there’s a specific app, book, or even Youtube video that caters to your individual learning needs. For example, here’s a mindfulness resource specifically for children with ADHD.
Finally, even if these short-term mechanisms are not a cure, they can open the avenue for you to internalize other ideas. For example, if you spend time away from a problem, you will come back to it with a new mindset.
In other words, it is better to spend 1 hour on a problem and instantly resolving it once you get back to it, versus sitting down and spending 20 hours on the same problem, hoping it will suddenly fix itself.
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