This is what I learned: I can’t stop rumination with sheer willpower, but I can refuse to take it seriously.

This is an art that takes a long time to master because every voice in your head sounds legitimate.

There’s an underlying belief in negative thinking—the root cause of rumination is the belief that thoughts should be taken seriously, that they are truth, that all of them are legitimate and worth considering.

If you can free yourself from that notion, if you can realize that not all thoughts are true, you’ll start to see ruminative thoughts differently.

One way to approach it is to always ask yourself: "Can I point to the problem?"

If my brain is going, “If only this had happened, if only that…” I stop and ask myself: "Okay, what can I actually do about this? What’s the next step I can take?"

If I can’t point to anything, if there’s nothing I can do right here and now, then I know the thought is bullshit.

To dive deeper into this topic, check out the original video here:

https://youtu.be/xnzAzYMaEPs

‍