Mysterious?

Hello. It's been a week. Did you miss me? Or were you too busy ruminating to even notice I was gone?

Here's the wiki definition of mental rumination:

Rumination is contemplation or reflection on a particular topic. If very persistent or repetitively focused on problems, it is thought to play a role in the development of clinical depression.

I've even seen journalists and researchers refer to the endless cycle of depressing problem obsessing that young girls do together as co-rumination. I wonder what those same journalists would call an endless cycle of depressing economic and political obsessing? Hmmmm? Maybe 'news'?


Research shows that people who spend a long time mulling over their thoughts may be more predisposed to PTSD than non-ruminators.

Are you a ruminator?

Ruminators share some common characteristics. They often:
• Believe they're gaining insight through it.
• Have a history of trauma.
• Perceive that they face chronic, uncontrollable stressors.
• Exhibit personality characteristics such as perfectionism, neuroticism and excessive relational focus--"a tendency to so overvalue your relationships with others that you will sacrifice yourself to maintain them, no matter what the costs," researcher Nolen-Hoeksema explains.

The thing is, this ruminating is rarely helpful and, unchecked, may actually lead to depression or inaction.

Does work make ruminating worse?

Many people can probably relate to the ruminator's saga on a good day, much less at a time when it seems every radio, TV station and newspaper are running full tilt shock and awe. Work stressors add to the mix as employees, even those with "secure" jobs pick up on the panic and spend time obsessing about the effect that market instability might have on their or their families' welfare.

My typical suggestion in this case would be to interrupt the madness by bringing a little emotionally and physically healthy bonding time into employees' days with on-site yoga. And I am going to extol the benefits of that in just a sec', but I am also going to give you some suggestions for how anyone, anytime, for free can stop rumination in its tracks.

The benefits of bringing a little slice of sanity into the office:

• Yoga at work is safe, convenient and doesn't have to be sweaty.
  
• Our bodies were not actually designed to sit in one position for 8 hours a day. Yoga reduces employees' neck and back pain.
  
• Doing yoga at work often makes people laugh together, unwind a bit and start to see each other as another human beings (rather than snapping impatiently at anonymous co-workers).

The kind of sanity you just can't buy.

Truly, though, remaining calm is a skill that can be practiced and improved just like any skill. Research regarding nueroplasticity shows us that our brains change and adapt. The problem is that most of us have been practicing the wrong habits (rumination, stress, impatience, anger) for a very long time.

Practicing new habits like staying calm during times of turmoil, relaxation, focus and patience mean that like any new skill that we will have to practice it with diligence and in the beginning it might feel pretty flimsy in comparison to things we are better and more skilled at doing (like worrying).

A little exercise that everyone can do is to count your breath. Count to 21 as you breath in and out. As thoughts arise just let them go without berating yourself and go back to the counting. Thoughts will crop up but don't indulge - even if it seems urgently important!!! Beware this trap. You are only counting to 21. Just 21. If the thought is so darned important that you can't make it to the count of 21 then it will be just as important when you are done counting. You won't forget it. I promise.

Try this little exercise when you are feeling annoyed, or when your mind is spinning with worry, or after you check your stock portfolio. Let me know how it works.