The Trap Of Chewing on Your Problems

Have you found yourself thinking about something that bothers you over and over again. Well, that is what is called rumination.

The word originates from the process by which cattle and other ruminant animals regurgitates (casts up or more bluntly, vomit) previously consumed feed and chews it further. They grind up, swallow, then regurgitate and rechew their feed.

When we think over an issue repeatedly, we do what animals do when they chew and rechew their feed. At least with the animals, there is value in their rumination. It is a biological process. It helps ease their digestion.

Sadly, for humans, chewing on challenges just makes them harder to swallow. It doesn’t take them away. Instead it only fuels negativity and depression. So essentially, it is detrimental to mental health.

Brooding over a challenge lands us on dangerous corridors and can make us take irrational decisions based on anxiety and fear. It can send us into a spiral of uncontrolled negativity. We find ourselves coming up with theories that are not true, settling for misbeliefs (something we believe in, but that is not true), or just blow matters out of proportion and exaggerate. It may also cause us to feel isolated and can, in reality, push people away.

When we ruminate, we obsess over what we are going through, what we feel we did wrong, things we feel are wrong with us, or things we fear will happen going forward. We keep replaying thoughts, rechew the cud as it were, until we are trapped in a vicious cycle of fear and anxiety. There is no value at all in chewing on your challenges.

No matter the nature and amount of challenges we face, we must refuse to be bullied by our own thoughts. We must question every thought and put matters into perspective. In that way, we would disarm the thought from torturing us.

Furthermore, instead of worrying and going through the same thoughts repeatedly, take that thought and make a plan to take action to address it.

It helps to outline each step you need to take to address the challenge or write it down. Be as specific as possible and also realistic with your expectations. As you do so, separate things that you can control from those that you cannot control. The ones that you cannot control, pray about them and leave them in the capable hands of God.

Doing this will disrupt your rumination. It will also help you move forward in the attempt to get a negative thought out of your head once and for all. It will also help you put matters into perspective.