Thinking About The Past
People tend to be quite different in the things they think about. Some people are always thinking about the future, and the good and bad things that might happen to them. Other people have their mind mainly in the present without much thought for the past or future. Other people have an orientation more towards the past, but there are two quite different ways of thinking about the past.
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These two ways of thinking about the past are termed introspection and rumination. There are some key differences between these two types of thinking about the past.
Introspection – curiosity and self-exploration
Firstly, introspection means thinking about the things that happen to you with an attitude of curiosity and self-exploration. To display introspection means to be interested in your past and to try to draw some conclusions about yourself or other people, or, to simply spend time thinking about the pleasurable things in your past. Introspection can add real colour and depth to your current experiences and also includes notions such as nostalgia and sentimentality. Introspection has a light and inquisitive tone to it.
Rumination – regret and ‘wheel spinning'
On the other hand, when we think about the past in terms of regrets we are ruminating. At those times, where we think about the past and we wonder what we might have done differently, or we wonder about the actions of others, we are essentially spinning our wheels. In doing this, we don't draw anything from the past but continue to sink our present moment into the regrets of the past. There is little pleasure or insight to be gained from rumination; on the contrary, it's more associated with anxiety and depression. Rumination has a heavy and automatic tone to it.
Telling the difference
So how can you tell if you're being introspective or ruminative? I think it comes down to what you are gaining from thinking about the past. If you feel that you are drawing lessons from the past, or enjoying the past then it's more likely that you're being introspective. On the other hand, if your thoughts about the past are full of regrets and bitterness, or your thoughts have a repetitive automatic quality, it's likely that you are ruminating.
Rumination – wasted time
We are free to think anything we like, and many people find enjoyment from thinking about the things that happened in the past. However, at any given point there are lots of things that we can be thinking about. To spend our time in rumination takes us away from the other things that we could be thinking about such as the pleasant past, the present, or the future.
Transforming rumination into introspection
So how can you turn rumination into introspection? The first step would be to notice yourself thinking about the past. Secondly, ask yourself what you are getting about these thoughts about the past. If you find that you aren't drawing anything from the thoughts of the past that you might be able to use in your present or in your future, ask yourself questions like ‘what lessons can I draw from this experience?' or ‘what action can I take now to prevent this from happening again?'
Taking action
Psychotherapy and counselling can be useful when we constantly ruminate about the past. It can offer a process to break out of the repetitive nature of thinking about the past, to extend our thinking into the present moment, and into the future. Psychotherapy and counselling have a strong emphasis towards growth and development of people and consequently a strong emphasis towards introspection over rumination.
I'd be interested in what you thought about this – please let me know in the comments below. If you found this interesting, I have written a similar blog post about A Focus on The Future.
-Tim Hill
Source: Gabbard, G. O. Long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy – a basic text, 2nd edition, American Psychiatric Publishing Inc, New York
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Gabbard, G. O. (2010) Long term psychodynamic psychotherapy: a basic text, 2nd edition, American Psychiatric Publishing Inc, New York
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Good explanation Tim, very helpful. I love the steps from rumination to introspection, it makes life more pleasurable.
Thanks Cait, I’m glad you found it helpful.
Nice article Tim. Very helpful. I am myself trying to beat the ruminating habit and turn into productive introspection and your article is very helpful
Hi Rohan, I’m glad you found it helpful for you. Ruminating can be a difficult thing to get on top of but I think the first step is to discover that you’re doing it, and the second step is to decide to address it. Clearly, you’ve passed those steps and are on the way to making changes. Good on you, and good luck!
Yes. What you said happens to me all the time. I ruminate quite often but at the same time I try to draw some conclusion from it. The problem is how not to think about the past?
Hi Sampat, I think there is asome value in trying to draw some conclusions, but I would perhaps try to move my attention to other things when you start ruminating. A good way to do this is to take a deep breath, let it out, then imagine that you are stepping out in a new mental direction. A really key thing is not not be critical with yourself about ruminating – this is a sure way to stay trapped with it. All the best!
Hello sir today u make me soooooooooo relief , today I’m able to know what actually im doing by thinking my past Sir I want to tell u that in 2016 I was in depression nearly about 5-6 months because of may reasons but the main damage is done by my girlfriend Sir some times in night I cry a lot like 2 yr old kid actually main reason is she done already sex with someone and she just shows interest in some other boys even after 5 year relationship with me but I have too much regrets that I had wasted my time and money on her . Today I just want to change my past and most of time I think about my past I’m just very very very hurt from inside