How to Help Reduce Worries & Ruminations
/By Meridith Antonucci, MA, LPCC
For many, 2020 and 2021 have been filled with new, unique challenges as well as many exacerbated, familiar challenges. Do you find yourself worrying about what is yet to come? Or are you stuck ruminating on what has already happened? Perhaps both depending on the day or hour?
In my Master’s program for Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Naropa University, I wrote a thesis about how to help reduce worries and ruminations in therapy clients. Below I have summarized some of the key finding offerings from the paper titled ‘Pause, Breathe, and Feel: A Body Psychotherapy Approach to Working with Perseveration’. Please note that this approach is not intended to end worries or ruminations forever (I wish!), but, instead, it is intended to create more space and time between worries and rumination.
Perseveration is a term that refers to a rigid, habitual pattern of repetitive thoughts. It can refer to worry (future-oriented negative thoughts) or rumination (past-oriented negative thoughts). Both worry and rumination tend to be cyclical in nature – unless the cycle is interrupted or broken!
When you are worrying about the future or ruminating about the past, your brain is not oriented to the present moment. Our nervous systems and brains can be brilliant and they can also be limiting. When we are thinking about something that might happen, our bodies (and nervous systems) are often responding as if the event is happening in the moment. In other words, regardless of whether a perceived threat is real or imagined, we can still experience stress. Operating in this way over time can result in long-term physiological consequences due to increased stress levels and prolonged fight/flight nervous system responses.
Okay, so what do we do about it? Worrying and/or ruminating are ultimately habituated patterns. And awareness of a pattern is critical in order to change it. My paper outlines a few basic steps:
Notice: The first step is noticing the worry or rumination. For example, “I am noticing I am worrying about not getting the job” or “I am noticing I am ruminating on whether I handled that conversation with my coworker over Zoom appropriately.”
Pause: Once you have noticed the perseverative thought, pause. Pausing is all about becoming more engaged with this moment. Experiencing the present moment can help interrupt the cycle of whirling thoughts. Consciously pausing for a moment gives you the opportunity to become more aware of what is happening right now in the present.
Pausing the cyclical thought pattern might look like taking a big breath, having a sip of water, or noticing items in your physical environment.
Breathe: If it feels comfortable and accessible, lengthen and smooth your breath. This is a good opportunity for a big “haaa” exhale. Breathing is fascinating because it is an unconscious process that sustains life and it can be made conscious just through our awareness. Slowing and smoothing your breathing can also help you feel calmer because it helps to regulate your nervous system. See below for one of my go-to breathing practices.
Feel: The body receives messages before the brain registers them. You can strengthen your ability to notice what is happening internally through practice. When any muscle in the human body is not used it may atrophy whereas when it is used and engaged regularly, it strengthens. The same principle applies here: It is possible to train one’s attention to focus on noticing, feeling, and sensing one’s internal sensations or noticing one’s ‘internal landscape.’ The ability to sense what is happening internally can be helpful for our ability to regulate our emotions and, once again, feel calmer and more regulated.
Personally, through practicing building my interoceptive ability, I have discovered that feeling my breath expand into back of my ribcage feels soothing and grounding to me. In the field of body-centered psychotherapy, identifying literal or figurative areas of the body as soothing or supportive is called locating somatic anchors. Clients I have worked with have identified many various somatic anchors: feeling feet push into the ground, hands on the heart center, or sitting bones push into a chair.
Overall, when we are worrying or ruminating, we are less likely to effectively manage stressors or make good decisions. So, if you notice you are worrying or ruminating, try to pause what you are doing to notice the present moment, consciously breathe, and feel into an area of the body that is soothing to you (feet on ground, hand over heart, etc.). These strategies can help us handle stressors more effectively and ultimately make better decisions.
For more information about this topic/to read the full paper, click here. If you would like to learn more about how Umbrella Collective’s services can help you with this technique or many others, here’s where you can find more information, or contact us through our website.
*A breathing practice for slowing and smoothing your breath known colloquially as square or box breath: Breathe in and slowly count to 4 in your head, pause with the breath in for 4 counts, exhale for 4 counts and pause with the breath out for 4 counts. I often feel different after just a few rounds. Explore what works for you.
