How Ruminating Affects Your Physical and Mental Health

Ruminating--that is, rehearsing in one's mind over and over about what might be or events of people that have already occurred--is something that many of us do everyday and for long periods of time. Most of us feel that ruminating is harmless and just a bad habit but actually it can cause harm to our minds and bodies. Rumination can be separated into two areas--brooding about something or someone or reflecting on a person or event. Reflecting appears to be less harmful because it can sometimes solve a problem but brooding can be harmful because it is negative emotion and not a proactive type of behavior. Rumination can occur anytime and become habit-forming. If left unchecked, it can negatively affect one's work, extracircular activities and relationship.
There is a price we pay for rumination and here is a list of ways in which we pay a price.
1. Problem solving. Most of us deal with problems and successfully solve them and move on; however, with those who ruminate, they take this process too far. Ruminators spend hours trying to solve a problem and then even after solving the problem, they continue to rehash the events in their minds, over and over. If a person ruminates a problem in his or her mind for days on end, it affects their behavior, affects their sleep and soon a person remains upset and disturbed for a long time.
2. Depression and anxiety. When a person ruminates constantly, he or she will soon find themselves depressed, anxious and worried about any and all situations. Ruminators constantly think about what they have done, what they need to do and what might happen from the decisions they make. Because they are always in a worried state, their health declines and they soon find that no one wants to be around them.
So, the question is, how can someone overcome rumination? The answer to this question is basically an easy one. To overcome rumination, Selby (2011) writes: "The answer is simple, to overcome rumination you need to engage in some kind of activity that fully occupies your mind and prevents your thoughts from drifting back to the problem." By keeping busy with meaninful activities, the ruminator will keep from ruminating about problems or concerns. This will take time but it will be well worth it because the ruminator's behavior will change from one of worrying and negativity to a more positive way of dealing with life. Activities that help a ruminator to get his or her thoughts off from worrying are: exercising, reading a book, talking with a friend or an interesting craft.