Hi and welcome back to the savvy psychologist podcast. I'm your host

Dr Ellen Hendrickson and I'll help you meet life's challenges with

evident-based research, a sympathetic ear, and zero judgment.

This week we'll wrap up our three-part series on toxic habits.

The third in our toxic triad, call it overthinking,

obsessing, brooding, wallowing, or call it the official term,

rumination.

Whatever you call it, listen on for four tips to stop the mental hamster wheel.

So rumination is thinking and thinking and thinking about something upsetting,

but in a passive way without actually taking action.

Now, I bet you never thought you'd learn about taxonomy in a psychology podcast, but I promise

I'll connect the dots.

Animals like cows, deer, goats, and sheep belong to the suborder ruminantia.

These multi-stummeced ruminants regurgitate their partially digested food and chew it again.

Likewise, ruminators chew on their thoughts as it were, over and over and over again.

Very different, but essentially the same concept. And how's that for a mental image?

So what's so bad about rumination?

Well, rumination makes people think that they're working on a problem.

But not only does rumination not produce solutions,

it exacerbates the problem.

All that thinking takes up time and energy individuals could spend fixing the problem.

Not only that, but rumination has been found to impair problem-solving makes ruminators less likely to take action

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