How to ‘STOP’ rumination and negative thinking
When something doesn’t go well, you do something you wish you hadn’t or make a choice but still remain unsure it was the right one even afterwards. The if’s and maybe’s of your internal dialogue keep a negative pattern running in your head and can keep you awake at night. You dwell on what happened because you haven’t let it go in your head. This is rumination and its very distracting and destructive.
When this happens, I have some useful strategies that may help you so I thought I would share a couple of them with you. If some of this sounds a little different that’s a good thing, because I love to do things a little differently. After all, doing something different is what can give you a different choice, another perspective and more positive outcomes.
I have found that when I overthink things, I feel more distracted, indecisive and anxious. Then I listen to myself in an unhelpful way. So, to overcome this I use a strategy I call my ‘STOP WALL’
When your mind is overthinking decisions or catastrophising scenarios these are unhelpful and unhealthy strategies.
Instead, in your head picture a big red stop sign on a blank wall. This is visualisation. Visualisation is a simple technique that you can use to create a strong mental image in your mind. Visualising is a powerful technique and can be used for any number of ways to support you. Here we are going to focus on this big red stop sign on a blank wall and in your head say firmly ‘STOP’. You are visualising the big sign plus you are hearing yourself shout STOP! Take a second to keep with that visualisation. Now think about something your find soothing, comforting and relaxing, or remember a relaxing sound you might listen to. I found picturing my cat sleeping and hearing her purring works for me. (It’s a cat lover thing!)
This visual plus auditory distraction uses two senses simultaneously and disrupts the thinking pattern and disconnects the mind from the negative thought and refocuses it onto the soothing positive one, reframing your thinking.
Use my STOP WALL but this time take off the STOP sign and use the blank wall. Picture the wall in your head and make it big enough and close enough so you can’t see around it, . You cannot think round it, above it or through it. It disrupts negative thinking and instead you can focus on a blank wall or on a soothing picture you visualise projecting onto the wall. This will allow you to go back to sleep without the negative thoughts emerging.
It’s actually quite hard to think and do two different things at the same time especially when one is negative and one positive. When you catch yourself overthinking a negative thought say out loud ‘STOP IT’. Or if that isn’t practical shout as loud as you can in your own head ‘STOP IT’. This disrupts your thinking pattern at that time, and your brain and body are now working together.
Now switch to actively do something you enjoy doing for a few minutes. It can be a small activity. You will still find as soon as you switch to a positive energy activity that is involving your mind and body that makes you feel good and is positive, you will trigger your brain into releasing more positive chemicals and your mind switches to focusing on what it thinks you want right now and refocuses on that instead. You simply stop ruminating the negative and have moved onto the positive activity. It i s as distraction technique for the brain.
Rumination and overthinking means you end up rudderless and going round in circles. When you catch yourself doing this have an anchor word that is forward focused, that you can direct your attention toward. Think of that word eg ‘outcome’ or ‘intention’ and then ask yourself
‘What was my intention when I was doing that or what was my desired outcome when that happened?
Looking with focus at what you have been over thinking about can give you clarity and redirect your thinking to a more purposeful intention. Rather than running the ‘what if’s’ and ‘shouldn’t haves’ over and over, you can calm your thinking down and focus on what you really want.
And if you didn’t get that, you can now decide what has to happen next to achieve your goal. It is really useful to revisit your intentions and a helpful way to relax and move you away from overthinking.”
I hope you find these useful.
And if you want to know more about my tools and techniques for having better wellbeing in a more positive life contact me. [email protected]
Be Well 2 Do Well
Caroline
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