9 Neuroscience-Backed Methods to Stop Ruminating & Quiet Your Mind

If you’re someone who ruminates, you know exactly what it’s like to obsessively focus on negative thoughts, emotions, or past events.

The problem is: the deeper you think, the harder it is to detach from these unwanted thoughts. And what ends up happening is your brain starts to control you, instead of the other way around. What I’ve learned from neuroscience and my own journey is that rumination isn’t just overthinking. It’s a brain wiring issue that’s reinforced negative neural pathways through repetition, which effectively trains your brain to get stuck in cycles of overthinking.

Now the cool thing is because your brain is plastic and can be shaped and changed over time, this means the same way you got stuck into the pattern of overthinking is what’s going to get you out of it. And this is because neuroplasticity proves that your brain is able to be reprogrammed with simple practices that you repeat until it becomes your new default setting.

So in this video, I’m covering 9 neuroscience-backed methods to stop ruminating, calm your nervous system, and rewire your brain to think clearly. And you’re going to want to stay for the last two because these are what finally helped me to break my own pattern of rumination after years of overthinking.

The first step to ending the pattern of rumination is always awareness.

When your mind starts looping, the part of your brain called the default mode network becomes hyperactive. This is the same network involved in self-referential thinking, which makes you think more about yourself and your problems.

By simply labeling your thoughts, what you are actually doing is creating space between yourself and the thought itself. When you separate the two, what you are saying to yourself is that “I'm noticing I'm ruminating, but I am not my thoughts.”

This essentially activates your prefrontal cortex, which is the part of your brain responsible for conscious control. So I know it might not seem like a big deal, but when you notice and interrupt these automatic thought loops, you re-engage your rational thinking. And each time you do this in the moment that it happens, you neurologically start rewiring your pattern of thinking.

Because rumination is mental, grounding brings you back to the physical.

Simple things like feeling your feet on the ground, focusing on your breathing, and noticing what you can see and hear are great ways to literally bring you back to your senses. What grounding does is basically pull your attention out of ruminating thought loops and into the present moment.

Every time you do this, you’re actually teaching your nervous system to feel safe in the here and now, instead of being stressed and overwhelmed by constant thoughts that run in your head.

When you’re stuck in rumination, your brain floods your body with cortisol and adrenaline, which is basically your body’s way of saying that something is wrong and needs to be fixed. But since rumination isn’t actually a real-time problem in the physical world, those stress chemicals have nowhere to go.

This is why moving your body is a great way to reset your chemistry. Things like walking, running, jumping, or any type of rhythmic movement gets you out of your mind and into your body. If you think about it logically; the more intense the physical strain you put on your body, the less time and attention you can give to your thoughts.

And on a chemical level, what’s happening is your body is releasing proteins that help metabolize these stress hormones, which literally helps your brain form new, healthier connections.

This is a technique neuroscientists call expressive writing.

When you transfer thoughts from your head into tangible words, your amygdala activity decreases and your prefrontal cortex reactivates. What writing essentially does is it allows you to organize your thoughts coherently so you can see them clearly. It takes the chaos out of your head so your brain stops perceiving them as incoherent threats.

So if you’re stuck ruminating, just take five minutes to write down exactly what your mind keeps bringing up without any filters or judgement. Once the words are out, the mere act of examining your thoughts instead of being stuck in them allows you to reduce the intensity of these thoughts, which gives them less power because you get to release them and see them rationally from a different perspective.

Here’s the thing. Rumination usually comes from judging yourself for past mistakes, failures, or things that didn’t go your way. So what ends up happening is you blame yourself for these events, which causes you to dwell and relive the same negative emotions over and over again.

Now when you practice self-compassion and tell yourself that you did your best with what you knew then, neuroscience shows that you reduce the activity in your amygdala because you are shifting away from mental threat to thoughts of safety. It’s like becoming a caregiver for yourself. And with enough practice, your brain learns to replace rumination with reflection, where you switch from punishing yourself to learning and understanding yourself.

One question I like to ask myself is: “What would I say to a friend who made the same mistake?” By asking this question, this allows you to change the vantage point from which you see the problem. And by doing so, instead of beating yourself up with unhelpful thoughts, you move to a place of understanding and self-compassion. 

By the way, if you’re ready to stop overthinking and reclaim your mental clarity, I’ve put together a free ebook called “Don’t Overthink It.” It’s a simple guide that helps you understand the root cause of overthinking and gives you actionable strategies to build confidence in your decision-making. So grab a copy using the link in the description below.

This is one of my favorite neuroscience-backed tools because it allows you to operationalize your thoughts.

This is how it works: If you catch yourself replaying the past, then take one deep breath and write down what you can learn from it. When you set a rule for your brain to follow, like “if this thought, then i’ll do that action,” you give yourself a solution you can implement to intentionally refocus your attention.

On a neurological level, what this does is it activates your dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which is the part of your brain responsible for executive functions like working memory, planning, and cognitive flexibility. By overriding old habits of thinking, this moves your mind away from foggy thoughts and into viewing your thoughts as information you can use to achieve a goal.

If you do this consistently, with neuroplasticity you start to strengthen the new pattern of thinking through repetition, eventually making it automatic. This essentially trains your brain to take a different path the moment rumination shows up.

This one comes from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and it’s backed by neuroscience.

Cognitive defusion means seeing your thoughts as mental events instead of seeing them as facts. This is really interesting because when you fuse with a thought, your limbic system reacts as if it’s true and happening now. It’s like waking up from a dream having the same emotions you would feel as if the dream actually happened. That’s the power of your brain, it can’t tell the difference between reality and what you’re imagining.

So when you ruminate, practicing cognitive defusion enables you to create distance by noticing the thought instead of being engulfed in it, which effectively separates your identity from these thoughts. By detaching from your thoughts and emotions, this allows you to see them more clearly, and teaches your brain to regulate these emotions instead of just being stuck in them.

This one surprises a lot of people, but it actually works really well.

If you tend to overthink, try setting aside 10 to 15 minutes a day to just let your mind wander. I use this time to either meditate or simply sit with my thoughts. When something keeps looping in my head, I write it down and ask myself, is this something I can act on or not?

What’s cool is that when you delay rumination, you’re letting your anterior cingulate cortex step in. That’s the part of your brain that helps you manage conflict between emotion and logic. So when worry shows up outside that window, just remind yourself that now is not the time, and that you’ll handle it later during your worry window.

By doing this, you regain a sense of control because you’re training your brain to contain your roaming thoughts by giving it structure, instead of trying to suppress them.

This is the deeper work. Rumination often happens when your brain doesn’t have something more meaningful to focus on.

Neuroscience shows that when you engage in purpose-driven thinking, like reflecting on what truly matters to you, activity shifts from the default mode network to the salience network, which helps you focus on what’s important now.

One trick you can use is to ask yourself: “What are these thoughts and experiences trying to teach me about who I am becoming?” And this is powerful because when you bring purpose into the mental struggles you are facing, your brain rewires how it stores the memory.

So instead of letting rumination create guilt in your mind, they become lessons that you can assign meaning to as a bigger part of your growth story.

Here’s what I hope you can take away from this video: Rumination isn’t something to shame yourself for because it isn’t a reflection of who you are, but simply a reflection of what you’ve been repeating up until this point.

When you really think about it, the power of using neuroscience to stop ruminating comes down to one simple truth: overthinking isn’t a bug, but a feature of your brain creating shortcuts for what you’ve done the most, which then becomes a habit. So every time you label a thought, ground yourself, move your body, or replace judgment with compassion, you’re literally reshaping your neural pathways through neuroplasticity.

You’re essentially teaching your brain a new pattern of thinking that associates a calm and focused mind with safety. And you have the power to change it.

So thanks so much for watching, my name is Dexter and have a wonderful day.

Bye Bye.

Sincerely,
Dexter Lam