Five Steps to Stop Ruminating and Repetitive Negative Thinking

You can’t stop thinking about it, no matter how hard you try. You’ve got some event or interaction from your past or future on an endless negative loop in your brain and you’re feeling more anxious, depressed and overwhelmed as a result. Why do you do this when you know it doesn’t help, and how can you stop? Today I’m answering all your questions and bringing you my five steps to stop (or at least greatly minimize) ruminating and repetitive negative thinking.

Chapters
0:00 Introduction
3:43 What is Rumination?
5:14 How Do I Know I’m Ruminating vs Just Thinking About Something?
9:47 What Causes Rumination?
14:28 Why Do You Do it even though you know it’s bad for you?
15:33 Five Steps to Stop/Minimize Rumination
17:14 Step 1: Mindfulness
19:52 Step 2: Start your day with positive momentum.
27:08 Step 3: Ground.
29:00 Step 4: Distract.
35:27 Step 5: Set a worry timer.

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Resources for Five Steps to Stop Ruminating and Repetitive Negative Thinking

Finally Stop Having Negative Thoughts
https://abbymedcalf.com/112/

The Simple Hack to Stop Your Negative Thoughts All Day
https://abbymedcalf.com/114-2/

Abby's Step-by-Step Guide to Starting Your Day Right
   • Abby’s Step-by-Step Guide to Starting...  

Definition of Rumination, American Psychological Association
https://dictionary.apa.org/rumination...
Ehring, T. (2021). Thinking too much: Rumination and psychopathology. World Psychiatry, 20(3), 441-442. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20910
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...

Watkins ER, Roberts H. Reflecting on rumination: Consequences, causes, mechanisms and treatment of rumination. Behav Res Ther. 2020 Apr;127:103573. doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2020.103573. Epub 2020 Jan 31. PMID: 32087393.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32087...

Watkins ER. Constructive and unconstructive repetitive thought. Psychol Bull. 2008 Mar;134(2):163-206. doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.134.2.163. PMID: 18298268; PMCID: PMC2672052.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...

Law, B. M. (2005, November 1). Probing the depression-rumination cycle. Monitor on Psychology, 36(10). https://www.apa.org/monitor/nov05/cycle
https://www.apa.org/monitor/nov05/cycle

Shors, T. J., Millon, E. M., M. Chang, H. Y., Olson, R. L., & Alderman, B. L. (2017). Do sex differences in rumination explain sex differences in depression? Journal of Neuroscience Research, 95(1-2), 711-718. https://doi.org/10.1002/jnr.23976
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/f...

Kocovski, N. L., MacKenzie, M. B., & Rector, N. A. (2011). Rumination and Distraction Periods Immediately Following a Speech Task: Effect on Postevent Processing in Social Anxiety. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 40(1), 45–56. https://doi.org/10.1080/16506073.2010...
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/1...
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