Short spoken guidance by Dr. Aziz describing an immediate technique to stop rumination: instead of overthinking, direct attention downward from the churning mind into bodily sensation. By breathing, locating the tight/vulnerable area in the body, and allowing/accepting the feeling, rumination is said to stop.
Here's how to stop ruminating now. Ruminating is trying to discharge through your mind, through overthinking about the situation, some uncomfortable feeling. So the next time you're ruminating, know that underneath this rumination, I must be feeling something painful, uncomfortable, vulnerable. And instead of trying to discharge it through the mind and thinking and thinking and problem solving, planning and thinking and thinking, and you just can't put it down, you have to go beneath the mind. Imagine like the mind is the surface of the water. It's all churning. You can even close your eyes and do this. You imagine with your next breath, you're like a pebble that's being dropped beneath that churny surface and go right down into your body. Take a full breath in and find a place that's really vulnerable or tight or angsty or uncomfortable or thrashy. And I know it's the last place we want to go with our attention. That's we want to stay in the safety of the mind. But it never helps you actually free yourself. So drop down into the body. Find the place that hurts. Breathe, allow it fully, accept it, fully be with it. And you will find the rumination stops.
