I realize I should look up what rumination exactly is.
It's one of those things where you know it when you deal with it.
But how do you explain it?
"A deep or considered thought about something."
"Cows slow down their rumination."
Oh that's interesting.
PALESTRINA: Cows?
Cows. Actual cows chewing their cud.
That's also rumination.
PALESTRINA: Animals can get rumination?
Well, not thought-spirals. Well, I don't know.
But when we ruminate, our brains are essentially chewing on something.
They're running something over and over.
I call it my brain is spinning on something.
♪ [ Intro music ] ♪
Hello Brains!
I need some help.
I've been dealing with rumination a lot lately.
And my normal strategies aren't working.
So I reached out to this community on Twitter and here on YouTube.
For ideas on how to deal with getting out of thought-spirals.
How do you deal with rumination?
So that you can get your brain back...
...and focus on the book you're supposed to be writing.
Or you know, whatever it is you're trying to do.
This is something that I'm really struggling with lately.
Let's see what the community has to say!
And feel free to add yours in the comments.
'Cause I will take all of the ideas. All of them.
"It has to be something I focus on with my whole brain.
So generally a video-game with a strong story...
...or video-game/audiobook. If there's any room for rumination I'll keep going."
Sometimes I can't - I don't have time though.
I need to work!
Although I guess if I'm ruminating all day and not doing work anyway...
...I might as well play a video-game for half an hour.
But set a timer! 'Cause otherwise I'm going to be playing a video-game all day instead.
Mxiety says: "Once I catch myself my goal is to do literally anything else.
So going outside if I've been inside for a while.
Coloring if I've been at a screen for a while.
Into the kitchen to make tea if I've been depriving myself of food."
"Turn on some music I'm familiar with and can sing along to.
My brain will immediately shift focus."
That's fair!
If we're singing lyrics to a song that we know...
...there's not as much room for other thoughts, I guess.
"Comedy. My thoughts - good and bad - keep me awake.
So I listen to comedy podcasts.
Also Sudoku. I theorize that the analytical part of the brain...
...has to shut off the creative part to function.
So a maths puzzle really helps empty my head.
And I'll usually nod off while doing them."
I do Wordle sometimes.
Which is nice, 'cause it shifts my brain into a different mode.
But that's not usually enough to - usually long enough for me to forget what to ruminate about.
"I go to my Ten Percent Happier meditation app.
I can choose a meditation that directly addresses whatever I'm obsessing about."
Oh! "Anger, hurt feelings, jealousy, rejection, etcetera.
Regular meditation doesn't work for me.
Someone guiding it verbally does."
Oh! Interesting! Okay, that's a cool option.
"Oftentimes I just think "Stop!"
Whenever my brain gets unruly with negative thoughts.
It takes some practice, just remember that it's not the real you...
...and that you are the boss of your brain. Cheers!"
I'm going to try these.
I haven't tried any of these. These are just ideas.
Oh! This one got 333 likes.
Which means a lot of people agree with this one.
Pete says: "Move. Number one thing: move away from your current location.
And walk anywhere to change state.
You can't think your way out of rumination."
That is a very good point. Yes - I - yeah.
That's accurate.
PALESTRINA: I heard move to a different state.
[laughs] No, don't move to a different state.
Change states.
Pete says: "Move. Number one thing: move away from your current location.
And walk anywhere to change state.
You can't think your way out of rumination.
Have to do something physical with your body...
...and move to a different location to do something physical to stop the spiraling."
Okay. Also suggesting passing through doorways.
To get that threshold-effect.
The same thing that makes us forget what we're coming into a room for. Maybe?
Oh, wow. That's interesting.
I didn't think about that.
My new place has no doorways.
No thresholds.
So that's interesting.
It does mean that I forget things a lot less than I used to.
But I wonder if I'm also free to ruminate, too.
'Cause I never walk into any room.
I'm not going though thresholds.
It's very lofty and open.
Somebody else says: "Funny. I ruminate the most when I'm on walks.
I love walking, but the thoughts are not great."
I think that this really demonstrates, it's different for everybody
By the way, I did call Dr. Patrick LaCount...
...who is a research consultant on our channel...
...and who has a clinical practice in Colorado.
I asked him "How do you stop ruminating?"
"I need my brain back."
And he was like: "Well, this. Or this. Or
"So what you're telling me, there is no one solution?"
"There is no one solution."
There's different types of rumination.
Rumination is different for everybody.
There isn't anything that works for everybody, apparently
That said: my therapist did email me between sessions...
...a podcast. What was the podcast? Hang on.
A podcast called "The OCD Stories".
And there was an episode on rumination, urge surfing and dropping anchor.
I'll link in the description below.
The expert is Dr. Russ Harris.
And he talks about dropping anchor.
Which is apparently a form of grounding.
Which is safe even if you've experienced trauma.
There are three phases to it.
That can actually be done pretty quickly once you've practiced.
It might take you a little time at first.
The first thing is to acknowledge your internal state.
Acknowledge what you're feeling. Acknowledge what you're thinking.
The second one is connect with your body.
Or come back to your body. So connect with your body somehow.
The third step is engage with whatever it is you're doing.
Or re-engage.
So if I'm trying to write my book and keep ruminating about something else...
...I would acknowledge "I'm ruminating on this. This is what I'm thinking right now."
"This is how I'm feeling." And I'd connect with my body somehow...
...and then I'd go back to focusing.
You might have to do that three or four times...
...when you first start trying to use it.
But over time it can get quicker and maybe you'll only have to do it one time.
And maybe it happens really quickly.
I have not tried it yet.
There's apparently a lot of good research on it.
So I'm looking forward to that.
Let's see what they said over on YouTube.
Yes. There we go.
[laughs] I'm a YouTuber who doesn't know how to work YouTube.
What the -- I was just there!
Come on!
Okay, before i go into that thought-spiral...
...we're going to try dropping anchor right now.
I'm having the thought, that I really should know how to do this.
And what's wrong with me that I can't?
And I'm not a real YouTuber. I don't even know how to work YouTube!
And I'm feeling frustrated, and kind of sad. Like I kind of want to cry.
And then, reconnecting with my body.
I was a massage therapist for a while.
So I'm going to go with massage.
And then, re-engage. Go back to what I was doing.
Okay. Woah, you guys. That worked!
I'm not saying it'll always work. But that time it worked.
I still don't know how to do this.
Yeah. Palestrina, can you help me?
I can't remember - I just did this and I don't know how I did it.
YouTube, if you're watching: this is an accessibility issue!
Okay, so now there's new thought-spirals.
Now it's like: Oh God, we're not going to get this done in time!
And then there's lunch, and then y'all are going to get mad...
...'cause it didn't get done in time for lunch.
And then the video isn't going to be as good.
'Cause I'm wasting all this time.
Now my thoughts are arguing with eachother...
...that simple things aren't necessarily simple for everybody.
I do have that advocate in my brain...
...going: Okay, but simple? No.
Alright. Connect with my body.
PALESTRINA: Can you just hold this, then?
[both laugh]
And then, I'm going to re-engage.
Okay. Try different!
Caroline says: "The first step is usually to recognize I'm in a thought-spiral...
...and then trying to recognize why.
Am I sad? Bored? Stressed? Overwhelmed?"
Yeah, that's essentially the first step of dropping anchor, too.
"Otherwise I go parent-mode on myself. Give myself a hug, talk to myself like I would a child.
It's okay, what do you need? Should we get a snack, some water?
Do some push-ups? Shall we go for a walk?"
I will say this: I'm starting to learn how to parent myself.
I'm doing inner-child work.
And I do find that helpful.
I don't feel as alone.
Interesting. I hadn't thought of this...
...but sometimes the anxieties and worries that I have, they're old.
As my therapist says, the things we are the most worried about...
...are things that have already happened to us.
It's old trauma that's coming up.
So it's a younger version of myself that's actually worried.
Maybe stepping in as parent, being like: "give me the worry. I'm an adult now, I can take care of you."
I'm going to try that too. These are really good.
Joyce says: "Lots of great ideas here.
When I realize I'm tired of thinking about that...
...I hear my friend's voice say 'What do you want to think about?'
So now I have three subjects to think about instead.
One: places I've been or want to go. And I imagine the details.
Two: a scene from a favorite movie. Especially if it's a musical.
Three: 10 to 20 little things I'm grateful for.
Like my toothbrush or my new doormat."
"Whether stress, depression or ruminating, I keep a list of ideas to shift the energy inside my medicine-cabinet door."
I love that so much!
I'm so into this idea.
You know like you have a First-Aid kit?
The idea of
If you broke your arm that's not something you'd want to treat with a First Aid kit.
You'd go to the doctor.
But if you got a scratch, you can get a band-aid.
So the idea of an
...that works like, if this is something I can take care of on my own...
...I really like that. I'll link to some resources on emotional First Aid.
I really like the idea of taping this inside a medicine cabinet.
Just like if you get a headache, you might reach for some Ibuprofen or something.
You can open up the medicine cabinet and have something for dealing with mental health things too.
"I tell myself I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. Over and over again.
Until the thoughts stop.
My ruminations are about I did something wrong, or that others may judge me for it.
So saying that over and over, I've started to believe it."
"I've found it's a combination of things that help.
Accepting that my mind is a constant-running stream...
...and I'm standing in the middle waiting for thoughts.
Like a bear waits for fish.
You can either waste a lot of time fighting the current...
...and watch the fish swim around you in frustration.
Or embrace the stream's movements and let the fish come to you as they will.
The other I have is going for a walk...
...and mentally sitting down next to myself and treating myself like my own patient."
It's interesting to me how many of these are about not being alone.
Either somebody else's voice, or parenting yourself...
...or treating yourself like your own patient.
Sharon says: "I generally give myself permission to ruminate.
And write down/diagram my thoughts/ideas so they stop running around the squirrel-cage in my brain.
Getting it on paper also gives me the reassurance that I don't have to remember various points.
Because it's there to access whenever I need it.
It helps untangle the thoughts so it doesn't feel like I'm forgetting something just out of reach."
That's something I do a lot too.
I'm going to give myself permission to ruminate.
And I just re-schedule what it is that I'm doing that day.
I think it's good to recognize...
...that sometimes rumination can be productive.
It can be valuable. It can help us problem solve or create insights.
In the podcast I was talking about, which is in the description...
...the expert was like: "Yeah, it can get you to where you want to go.
There might be more effective way to get you there though.
That aren't going to beat you up this much along the way."
Marina says: "I verbally, out loud, say a sharp "Stop!" to myself.
The speaking and hearing of it can momentarily pause the spiral.
Almost like I startled the rumination.
I take advantage of that momentary pause to start doing something else.
Anything else. Ideally something that involves both moving my body...
...and hearing something, whether internal or external.
I might put on some music and dance it out for a couple of songs.
Or go prepare a meal."
Yeah.
This reminds me of Dr. Halliwell's strategy of dealing with the demon, he calls it.
The part of our brain that wanders is really strong in people with ADHD.
And he calls it the demon...
...'cause it's the creative part of our brain.
But it's also the part of the brain that comes up with really creative scenarios...
...for things that could go wrong, or really creative mean things to say about ourselves.
He says that when that part of the brain is active...
...the task-mode network, the part of the brain that's used when we're performing a task,...
...that part's not in use, essentially.
So if we go to do a task...
...I think his version was "Go cook an egg"...
...that actually shuts the door a little bit on the default-mode network.
There's not as much brain-space for ruminating...
...if you're actively doing something.
So I think that's where a lot of these come from, too.
These are really good.
There's hundreds and hundreds of ideas here.
I'll link to this post.
'Cause you might have a hard time finding it.
I'll link to this post in the description below...
...as well as the one on Twitter.
If you want ideas.
I think that it's pretty cool that this community...
...is so good at coming up with creative solutions to things.
And helping each other out.
A lot of the time we hear the same kind of mental health advice over and over again.
And it's nice to hear something new from somebody who gets it.
Somebody who experiences it too.
I'm sure we'll do a research-based episode on this at some point.
Because I am interested in
And why do we ruminate?
And hat does the science say works?
But I have a lot of ideas in the meantime and I will try them out.
So thank you so much to everybody that contributed to that.
Let me know in the comments if you have one that I didn't talk about.
Thank you to my Brain Advocates and all my Patreon Brains.
This community is amazing.
And it would not exist without the support that you give us.
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...
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Why can't I say this word?
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Bye Brains!
This is what we call a
♪♪