Rumination relief

This is BRIEF—not because it rhymes so nicely with RELIEF, but because—springtime.

 So take it in like a big clearing breath, then run play outside. (Addendum: Or in the time of Corona, carry on in the best way you see to LIVE YOUR LIFE.)

You know that when the mind is chewing and belching in a rambling rumination, you can't be fully present to the brilliant buzz and birdsong (or to WHATEVER'S actually going on here and now).

Let's cut through the illusions that keep rumination in place:

• You think you're going to figure it out if you keep going over it mentally.

NOPE. You're going to wear it out, like overchewed gum, and get no further with it, as the hamster on the wheel makes no linear progress. (Gum and hamsters! Nailed the mixed metaphor.)

• You think you'll get free of the story if you review it again.

NO! You just REINFORCE the story—even with no new arguments found. The old evidence, cemented with review, is plenty strong enough to hold your narrative in place.

• You think poring over the issue will clear the wretched way it makes you feel.

ARE YOU KIDDING? You only amplify the feeling with each related thought! And the intensifying feeling makes you reach for each next thought in this line of thinking. It's an endless feedback loop.

• You think you're being responsible by mentally latching onto a topic that truly MUST be addressed!

WAIT, love, have you, too, gone mad? There's nothing responsible or righteous about redundant, pointless revisiting of what keeps you feeling rotten. Global warming, your hanging-by-a-thread relationship, racial injustice, that puzzle at work, transgender issues, all that could go wrong for your kid in a heartbeat—none of that will be properly met or creatively handled through rumination!

• You think the mental review will keep you safe [in control, peaceful, socially acceptable—insert here your ego-wish of choice].

SIGH. You already know that won't work.

Try these 3 steps toward getting OUT of rumination:

1. Get in the habit of witnessing the mind (with no judgement, please—or witness the judgment too, and seek to release it).
2. Once you catch rumination in the moment (kindly, because you're not judging, right?), try interrupting it. Stop mid-sentence. Leave the thought incomplete.
3. Redirect the mind. You might simply bring it to presence, using your working senses: What do I see, hear, smell, breathing in the springtime air?

One more metaphor to illustrate those 3 steps:
 To go with gum and hamsters, let's add a dog on a leash. Notice (witness) when it goes for the disgusting random foodstuff, interrupt it at once (no need to think anything through!), and redirect—head ANY other way. (Argh, canine, was that even ever edible? Argh, mind, aren't you so disgusted with this endless review of what needs no reviewing?)

May your communing with all things spring unfold in glorious presence.

Love & blessings, Jaya

Here's another post I made on dissolving rumination with a good breath and a good question.

---