What is rumination (工作反刍)?
How can you avoid work-related rumination after work?
How can we manage rumination?
4-Can you switch off after work? 如何在下班后“断电”放松？
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611What is rumination (工作反刍)?
How can you avoid work-related rumination after work?
How can we manage rumination?
Do you worry about your job when you come back home? Hi guys, welcome back. Today, I’d like to talk about work-related rumination.
What is rumination? According to the Oxford dictionary, rumination is the act of thinking deeply about something. In the workplace, this is referred to as work-related rumination.
Martin and Tesser (1996) define rumination as “a class of conscious thoughts that revolve around a common instrumental theme and that recur in the absence of immediate environmental demands requiring the thoughts.” In simpler terms, it means that even after leaving work, you’re still thinking about things that happened there.
For example, if you had a meeting with your boss, you might overthink: What did they mean by that? Did I misunderstand their words? Did I say something wrong? Why haven’t they replied to my message yet? This cycle of overthinking is rumination. Over time, it can leave you mentally exhausted and lead to issues with your mental well-being.
How can you avoid work-related rumination after work?
Maybe you watch short videos to relax, but have you noticed that this is often a kind of instant happiness? Once the videos are over, you might go right back to ruminating about work. Worse, you may feel guilty for wasting time on videos while being unable to control yourself, which can lead to even more worry.
So, how can we manage rumination?
For me, I focus on strengthening my mindset and pushing myself to engage in other activities instead of scrolling through my phone. For example, I might go swimming. Reading can be tricky for me because my mind often wanders back to work, but activities that require my full attention—like swimming—help me avoid rumination while also improving my physical health. And as you know, physical health and mental health are closely connected.
What about you?
Do you struggle with rumination? If so, what do you do to stop yourself? I’d love to hear your approaches, so please share them with me.