Rumination

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Outside of psychology, "Rumination" is the word used for the way certain animals chew their food.
Animals with multiple stomachs are able to move food from one stomach back up to their mouth to chew it some more before swallowing it back down again ready to chew it again a bit later.
That's why we use it in psychology to mean to chew over your thoughts. Even if you swallow your thoughts down they keep coming back up for you to chew over again.
That's rumination. 

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Episode Transcript

Richard (00:00):
Happy bonus episode day, everybody.
Today it's about rumination andoverthinking.
An important topic.
Because research has shown thatpeople with reactive depression
that also ruminate over things,they find that their depression
turns into major depressivedisorder four times faster than

(00:21):
those that didn't ruminate.
And probably for a couple ofdifferent reasons.
Firstly, there's the old, thebrain doesn't know the
difference between fact andfiction thing that I keep
waffling on about, which makesthe brain react as if the
problems that you keep thinkingabout must be right in your face
all the time.
But also because there is onlyso much that the brain can do,

(00:42):
which means that the ruminationthat you do, that's likely
actually going to impair anyproblem solving skills, which
stops us from being able to seesolutions to our problems and
making us feel hopeless.
If you've been doing it all yourlife, you might think that it's
normal to overthink stuffthough.
'cause everybody worries, don'tthey?

(01:02):
But rumination differs from justplain old worrying.
'cause ruminating is about thepast.
Why did that happen?
What could I have donedifferently?
Why did they say that?
All that sort of stuff.
They look at the past fromdifferent angles and find it
impossible to let something goto just accept that something is

(01:25):
what it is.
Also, worrying might be helpfulto a degree.
We don't wanna ignore ourproblems and thinking about our
problems can help us to makestrategies.
Worrying about losing your jobmight make you look for another
one.
Ruminating is overthinkingwithout any outcome.

(01:46):
You go around in circles, butnever find solutions.
So if any of this soundsfamiliar and you'd like to
prevent or stop rumination, thenthere's a few things you might
need to do.
Firstly, learn to let go ofregret.
We all do stupid things thatwe're going to regret and we
100% have to say to ourselves.

(02:08):
Okay, that happened.
And then move on.
And I know it's a cliche, butinstead of focusing on what
could have been, we need tofocus on what could be, instead.
A phrase I use a lot is What doI want to see happen next?
That keeps me focused on thethings I can control and what I
do want to see happen, ratherthan the things I don't.

(02:31):
Next, find some ways to distractyourself internally.
In your own head.
With some daydreams if you can.
If you practice some hypnosis ormeditation, you'll get much
better at daydreaming.
And I know that sounds a littlebit wishy-washy.
Have a daydream.
But imagining a redesign of yourgarden or how to build a castle

(02:52):
in Minecraft or something is afar better use of your
imagination.
Get a puzzle book or a jigsaw ifyou want to go old school, even
your phone or your tablet ifyou've got one.
Now, I know distractions likeyour phone aren't always the
best solution.
'cause it can lead to beingunable to deal with reality for
some people, but everything inmoderation, eh?

(03:14):
I'd much rather you were playingAngry Birds on your phone than
living in the past andaccelerating the course of
depression by 400%.
Even if you just look throughphotos on your phone.
And if there aren't any decentones on there, then you've got
something to do.
Make an album of all yourfavorite experiences and
favorite people and look throughthem when you need a

(03:35):
distraction.
When all you had to do insteadwas overthink something, when
there was nothing else to do.
Maybe you need to fill up yourtime a little bit.
There's lots of opportunitiesout there.
This is the 21st century you cansoon Google things to do.
Go to a Pilates or a Tai Chiclass a couple of times a week.
'cause if you found time to sitand stew, then you can find time

(03:58):
for something else.
Take a course somewhere, learn alanguage, learn the saxophone or
something, shrink down the spacein your life that you used to
take up with rumination so youcan do something better or more
meaningful.
That would expand your comfortzone a little bit as well.
Give you a sense of mastery andcontrol over your life.

(04:19):
'cause that helps you to movethe sense of your locus of
control, as it's called, fromexternal to internal.
By doing something that's alittle hard, not too hard, but
something that boosts yourbelief in what you can achieve,
you increase your confidence alittle bit as well, which is
often something that ruminatorsseem to lack.

(04:40):
As always, there's more aboutthis on my Patreon page.
Sign up there for extra episodesand lots of hypnotherapy
content.
Let's see if we can help youturn things around.
Enjoy your week.
I'll speak to you next time.
See ya.