We all obsess on troubling thoughts from time to time. All of us get fixated on troubling unhealthy messages that flow through our mind and overwhelm our thinking. These thoughts just don’t seem to go away. We are unable to defused them.
This type of thinking is called ruminating. Ruminating thoughts can be very pervasive and troubling for many of us. We get caught up on ruminating thoughts due to our fast pace and demanding lives. Ruminating thoughts can result from anxiety, doubts, and fears as well as predicting thoughts of what might happen in the future, negative thoughts, stress and worry.
What is a Ruminating Thought?
Ruminating thinking is defined as the compulsive focusing of your attention on distress, and on its possible causes, outcomes and consequences, as opposed to its solutions. When you ruminate, you over-think or obsess about situations or life events, such as work or relationships. This type of thinking can result into a mental thought loop which over time can manifest into a thought addiction. More you attempt to fight them the more intense and embedded the thoughts become. This thinking process can cause you to feel helpless and increase your distress. Many thoughts that you ruminate on tend to be are false, distorted, misleading, unsupported predictions and/or unrealistic.
Research has shown that rumination is associated with a variety of negative consequences, including increase of anxiety, depressive thoughts, panic attacks, and increased symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder as well as addictions, emotional acting out episodes and eating disorders.
Once caught in ruminating it is very difficult to stop and you can go to great lengths to alter your thinking. Excessive ruminating can be very devastating and demoralizing to your ability to function appropriately and your life.
What can be done?
9 tips on how to stop ruminating thoughts
1. Be in the moment. You can accomplish this by grounding yourself. Sit with your feet flat on the floor and sitting with your back straight. Once you’re grounded, focus on your breathing or heart beat which will it will bring you into the moment.
2. Consciously connect with your thought stream.
3. Recognize and write down all the thoughts that you are ruminating on and troubling you.
4. Connect with, assess and tune into the thoughts you have identified. Determine whether your thoughts are good (appropriate, factual, real, truthful) or bad (false, diluted, distorted, misleading and/or unrealistic).
5. Slow down your thought stream by deepening your breathing and heart rate. Pick out the one most troubling thoughts that is the most false, diluted, distorted, misleading and/or unrealistic which you want to cancel and remove.
6. Stop your thought stream. Using your imagination, pull out that thought from its position in your conscious thought stream. Visualize that thought you have targeted and highlight it, so it is brighter that all of the other thoughts. Then clear (remove or cancel) by imagining you are erasing it. Once the erasing is completed you will have an empty space in your thought stream.
7. Insert a new, inspiring, motivating or positive thought into the space in your thought stream where the ruminating thought resided in your thought stream.
8. Repeat the new thought 4 times out loud with strong feeling.
9. Lastly, give the new thought permission to grow and start up your thought stream once completed.
Repeat
Once you have completed clearing the first targeted thought, then move to the next thought you want to stop in your thought stream. At that point repeat all the steps again steps - 4 through 9.
Takeaway
The more you practice these tips the more skillful you will become and your confidence, confidence and personal power will increase. Master your mind and change your life.
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Battling negative thoughts, attempting to forget they exist or shifting them to be positive is hard when it seems you like are powerless.
Negative thoughts invade and consume your thinking from time to time.
It is not only important to know how to hack into your mind and change negative thoughts, but rather how to consistency manage them over time.
5 Quick Coping Tips
In order to hack into your mind, you need to reinforce new thought patterns while interrupting your negative thoughts patterns:
1. Get out in nature. The sunshine and fresh air can help you to feel better and to change your perspective. Simply getting up and moving can help to boost your mood and produce positive thoughts.
2. If you are spiritual or religious, use prayer or talking to your higher power.
3. Use creative art, journaling, exercise, expressive writing, and dance.
4. Listen to music that inspires you.
5. Memorize quotes to defuse thoughts patterns.
6. Eat a healthy and mindfully.
Count backwards from 100 in increments of 4.
These manage ideas will enhance your refocusing skills and help you to master the thoughts that stream in your mind.
Longer Term Management
Create new thought patterns
Avoid trying to immediately fight off or ignore a negative thought. Rather form a new one positive thought and focus on that by repeating the new thought often.
Be mindful of your general physical and mental health
When you are not feeling well physically mentally or spiritually, the amount of negative thinking you have could increase. Therefore, it is crucial to take care of yourself especially during difficult times.
Eat a well-balanced diet filled with fruits, vegetables, protein, and vitamins.
Limit your drinking alcohol consumption. Don't over use non-prescribed prescription medication, or engaging in other forms of substance use.
Exercise consistently, at least 3 to 4 times a week. Exercise is a great way to increase positive emotions, increase physical strength and distract yourself from negative thinking. Consider involving yourself in alternative forms of working-out like: hiking, rock-climbing, dancing, aerobics, martial arts and yoga.
Educate Yourself, Increase Your Knowledge and Support Yourself
Reading inspiring articles is a great start. Reading experiences of others with his/her experiences with negative thoughts and how they change them from bad to good can give you hope that change is possible. Search the Internet with phases such as "positivity," "positive phrases," “how to forget negative thoughts” etc. There are many positive people out there that wish to help others to evict negative thought patterns. There is support groups on the internet to help you increase your skill with changing negative thought patterns.
5 More Tips
1. Positive thought patterns are contagious. Stop surrounding yourself with negative thinking people. Rather surround yourself with people who make you happy and are optimistic.
2. Monitor your thoughts in the moment and analyze appropriateness of each thought. Be aware that your mind is often only tricking you to believe something negative, when that isn't true.
3. Start changing your negative thoughts one at a time. Don’t over expect that you can change all your negative thinking patterns all at once. Be realistic. It is much easier to change negativity to positivity incrementally. Attempting to change all really bad thoughts to a really good thoughts quickly is impossible.
4. Don't push yourself to think positive. Don't try to be perfect. Even the smallest mistake can throw you into more negative thoughts.
5. Be your own support. Accept that negative thoughts are part of the contrast in life and keep in mind that if you don't know what you don't like; you will also not know what you do like. You can choose your thoughts but don't be discouraged if you fall back now and then. Try instead to muster a smile and find the humor in the fact that your mind can be very stubborn at times. Be nice to yourself.
Take Away
Don't do it alone
If negative thoughts are causing you to have extreme emotional swings, or to engage in risky and harmful behaviors. Coaching, therapy or other forms treatment may help.
Contact a counselor, psychologist or life coach. There are several treatment techniques specifically help people alter their negative thinking. No one technique helps everyone. Find on that helps you.
If ruminating on negative thoughts overwhelms you, might explore medication options for a short time. Consult a psychiatrist for additional information or to discuss options.
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