The Opposite of Rumination Is Avoidance

A lot of people have been told that rumination is the enemy. That if you're turning something over in your mind, you're being unhealthy. That the answer is to stop thinking about it and move on.

That advice is backwards.

Rumination is a healthy aspect of life. Emotional health requires it. You chew on a thought the way a cow chews its cud, not to torture yourself, but to draw insight and understanding out of it.

You turn the meat on the spit so it cooks evenly. There is a finish line. There is a constructive purpose.

We determine what is the exact opposite of unhealthy things in order to understand their healthy alternatives. Likewise, we can look to the opposite of healthy things in order to understand what is unhealthy.

Obsession, like Rumination, turns something over and over, but with no finish line and no purpose except the turning itself. So Obsession is unquestionably unhealthy - because it is pointless and devoid of any benefit. Even so, Obsession is not the literal unhealthy opposite of Rumination. Do you know what the unhealthy opposite of Rumination is?

It is Avoidance. Running from uncomfortable thoughts and feelings. Refusing to bring them up. Denying them rather than analyzing them.

A constant feature of emotional unhealth is people running from what hurts. So if that has been your custom, and it has left you miserable and disordered, the answer cannot be to keep running. The answer has to be the opposite of whatever got you here.

Sit with it. Chew on it. Look for the insight. That is how healthy people think.