Stop Ruminating and Start Swimming

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“Rumination is a circular thought process in which you go over the same things again and again.  Often, the focus is on how bad you feel or doubting that you can ever feel differently or better…..In a sense, rumination is a faulty attempt to solve problems.”  Source: Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Dummies by Rob Willson and Rhena Branch.

“Swimming is the method by which humans (or other animals) move themselves through water.”  Source: http://www.wordiq.com

I have made amazing strides in overcoming disempowering thought processes.  I have greatly reduced the impact that Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) has on my life.  A little known fact about OCD is that people who have it, tend to gravitate more towards repetitive rituals or obsessive thinking.  Of course per the description above of rumination, obsessive thinking could be thought of as repetitive thinking.  I fell into the category of thinking repetitively, often rehashing the same material in my head over and over.  Now I dive into a salt water pool and swim continuously, without pausing for the next thought attack.

You don’t need to have OCD to ruminate.  You can simply be over-focused on some aspect of your life that you are thinking about negatively.  I have addressed a number of disempowering thought and behavioral patterns throughout my lifetime and I have a secret to tell you.  Here it is:
Rumination is one of the easiest flaws in thinking to cure!

Here is how:

Curing Rumination Step #1: Recognize when you are doing it!

The first step to stop ruminating is simply understand what it is and recognize when you are doing it.  If you have depressive repetitive thoughts about the same subject matter over and over there could be signs such as you have trouble getting to sleep or you wake up early in the morning and remember the subject of your obsession and you start ruminating again!  People who ruminate literally get stopped in their tracks by their thoughts.  Chances are good that if you have a tendency to ruminate you will find yourself so caught up in your circular thinking that whatever activity you are engaged in will be halted at times.  If you were watching yourself from outside of yourself it would appear that someone hit the pause button.  A classic way I would catch myself ruminating is that when I arrived home and parked in my garage I would just sit in the car for several minutes instead of immediately getting out of the car and going into the house.  Another way I caught myself was when I started to think negatively while swimming, I would slow down and lose my coordination.  Once I stopped and started to inhale water!  I was beginning to drown in my thoughts!  It was at that point I snapped out of it and made the connection between my thoughts and my physical motion.  Where do you notice that you hit the pause button on your life when you are having circular thoughts?

Curing Rumination Step #2: Snap Out of It!

This step is a very easy one once you learn to recognize that you are rehashing the same thoughts over and over in a faulty attempt to solve a problem.  At this point you need to physically and mentally snap out of it.  For me, it meant getting out of my car and going on with my routine.  Usually interrupting my motionless state would do the trick.  To prevent rumination from coming right back I would often give my mind a healthy distraction such as playing relaxing music or listening to a self-help CD.

Curing Rumination Step #3: Smooth out your Motion.

Once you have snapped out of it and have given your mind something more pleasant to focus on, then you can engage in an activity in which your physical motion is smooth and constant.  Walking, swimming, cleaning the house, and doing yard work all work well.  I find that once I am in motion, my circular thinking turns into problem solving.  The grip on the material my mind was rehashing loosens and fresh and more empowering thoughts and solutions are allowed in.  It is at this point it is also easier to change the subject if you feel it is not the right time to focus on this particular problem. It is likely that you will receive positive messages about the concern at hand before you release it.  This makes the concern more pleasant to revisit when the time is right.

If you diligently practice steps #1 through #3, then you will greatly reduce any problems you have with ruminating.  Steps #4 and #5 will help prevent rumination from surfacing.  Just know, that while the later steps may take more time to implement, you can immediately gain a tremendous amount of relieve by applying the first three steps.

Curing Rumination Step #4: Address what is bugging you.

You would not be caught up in a pattern of ruminating about something if that something was not really bugging you.  So if you resolve and dissolve the problem, then you will remove the need to ruminate about it.  I don’t mean that you can waive a magic wand and have everything go your way.  You may be ruminating about your financial situation.  You may be ruminating about the terminal illness of a close family member.  You may be ruminating about a paper you need to write and you don’t know where to start.  Perhaps you are just ruminating about the way a coworker treated you at work yesterday.  Addressing what is bugging you does not mean you cannot get relief until your financial situation improves, your family member is cured, your paper is written, or your coworker treats you better.

Resolving and dissolving the problem really means resolving and dissolving your faulty way of thinking about your life circumstances.  It means reframing the situation in a way that leaves you empowered. You may be best served to learn techniques that will help you deal with your life situation in a healthy way.  This will help you feel like you are in motion and have power in the situation.  The truth is that you do have power and choices in any given situation!  You may want to seek some professional advice from a credit counselor for your financial situation.  You may want to seek the services of Hospice to get emotional and spiritual support for your imminent loss.  You may benefit from talking to a friend about of project you are avoiding and get their insights and support.  You may want to take a class on assertiveness to deal with people who treat you poorly.  The key is to face the truth about your life circumstances, reframe in a manner in which you have power and choices, and stay in action.

Curing Rumination Step #5:  Address the root causes of rumination.

While step #4 was really about reframing the particular life situations that come up–the former subject matter of your obsessive thinking, step #5 is about addressing your life habits and the environment that shapes your thoughts and feelings.

The root causes of rumination include negative thinking and our physical state of being.  No matter what your problems–you will not ruminate if you eat a healthy diet, exercise, meditate and think positively.  Recently I noticed myself getting back into a pattern of rumination after this type of thinking pattern had been largely eliminated from my life for over a year.  I notice two major things going on that cause rumination to creep back into my life.  The first change was very positive.  Since I quit my job I have been becoming more discerning about how I relate to other people which necessarily has meant that I needed to establish a different way of interacting with people.  As I started to stand up for myself on a regular basis, I noticed that when I am not being treated in a way that is consistent with who I am–that this would bug me much earlier in the game than it would before so I found myself in the position of having a lot of stuff to process. At the same time, I was getting a little too loose about including raw chocolate and agave nectar (a sweetener) in my diet.  Sugar and caffeine definitely can increase rumination!  Since I am skilled in recognizing circular thinking patterns and I have developed great problem solving skills it was easy to identify the culprit and eliminate rumination before it became terribly intrusive in my life.

Your physical and mental environment affects how you feel. Don’t put yourself into situations where you experience frustration and don’t get wrapped up into other people’s dramas.  Now that I have experienced swimming in a saltwater pool, I could never jump into a chlorinated pool without feeling some distain.  I love that I don’t wreak of chlorine when I get out of the salt water pool and that it is not hard on my hair or my skin.  When I first started to swim in a salt water pool it took a little while to adjust to the difference in buoyancy.  Also when I first got in, I happened to be in at the same time as someone who was smelling ripe–the salt water did not mask the scent of the body odor like the chlorine did.  There is an element of truth there that I can really appreciate!  I can say the same thing for some of the life situations that I have changed that affect the environment in which I move forward.

Bottom line: You can prevent rumination by leading a healthy internal and external life.  A healthy way of living is the food from which empowering thoughts feast and an unhealthy way of living is the food from which disempowering thoughts feast.  If you minimize the food you feed to your negative thoughts and prevent the mechanisms that cause them to spin in a perpetual ring of negativity, then you will not ruminate regardless of what is happening in your life.

Enjoy swimming in a straight line instead of in circles.  Just think of how much further you will get and how much better you will feel!