How Meditation Stops Rumination

One famous study suggests that people’s mind have this tendency to wander for about 50% of the time. While that seems harmless, the thoughts that occur during such wandering times are often unpleasant and full of worries. We are caught up thinking about what we need to do, what we fail to do, and other things that don’t do us good.

And you know what’s worse?

Rumination happens more than we’re aware of and more than we want. Slowly and unconsciously, it affects our daily lives and brings us down.

So, how do you stop ruminating for good?

Here are some useful tips you can use today to end ruminating once and for all.

Name it

Mindful meditation allows you to be more aware of your thoughts and emotions. This improves your ability to identify them and tame them.

However, before you can do that, you have to practice it with positive emotions and feelings, like calmness, excitement, joy, and love.

The practice is effective because the process activates the part of the brain that’s linked to logical thinking. Along the way, it quiets the emotional side of the brain known as the amygdala.

It encourages positive self-talk

When you overthink things, you tend to avoid those uncomfortable feelings which often come with negative self-talk.

So, if you want to stop ruminating, you need to reframe whatever it is you’re thinking into something positive. The whole process needs a certain degree of awareness and that’s exactly where mindful meditation can help you.

By catching your negative thoughts and turning them around, you’ll be able to stop rumination from starting,

Additionally, positive self-talk can also increase your self-confidence. This will make it less likely for you to focus too much on failure and negative ideas in the first place.

It helps put emphasis on solutions

When you’re too obsessed with or when you are ruminating over something, it’s because they look too overwhelming or daunting. This clouds your mind and stops you from focusing on a solution.

In mindful meditation, you’ll learn how to stop what you’re thinking and focus on what’s happening in the present. This will give you time to overcome your obsession and ask yourself about the smallest solutions you can do to solve the problem. Once you are able to come up with a solution, you can start pushing away any unwanted thoughts and take action.

It sets a time-limit

If you really can’t stop ruminating about something, you can use mindful meditation to set a time-limit.

For example, if your thoughts just won’t go away, spend about 15 to 30 minutes to concentrate on meditation. And if it’s still there, extend the time you’re meditating.

It makes you calmer

Rumination can happen anytime and anywhere. Whether you’re on a bus to work or you’re eating your lunch, you can get those thoughts and they can be a bit hard to stop once they’re there.

Meditation gives you a solution you can actually do anytime and anywhere. You don’t really need to have your yoga mat, essential oils, and other meditation tools to do it.

You simply need to check-in with the people around you and the environment you’re in to know if it’s safe to practice there. Turn off anything that might distract you and hold a relaxed posture. Breathe naturally and meditate.

Conclusion

Rumination is something that happens persistently. It’s something that you can’t easily take control of.

Mindful meditation, however, can help you get started. While it doesn’t work like magic and give results overnight, with consistent practice, dedication, and commitment, you’ll find it useful in stopping rumination and in making sure that it doesn’t happen anymore.

The process may cause discomfort at first but with continued observance, you’ll find your thought getting better and more positive in time. So, be patient and don’t give up easily if you find yourself facing a lot of challenges along the way.