How to Stop Overthinking: Rumination, OCD, and Breaking the Awareness Trap

Being Well with Forrest Hanson and Dr. Rick Hanson

Being Well

Health & Fitness, Education, Self-improvement, Mental Health

4.8 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 17 March 2025

⏱️ 72 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Self-awareness is a good thing…right? In this episode, Forrest and Dr. Rick Hanson explore how we can stop overthinking and break the self-awareness trap: when knowing ourselves becomes an obstacle to change. They discuss the difference between reflection and rumination, the pitfalls of being "an expert on yourself," and why overthinking is often an avoidance mechanism disguised as problem-solving. Dr. Rick shares practical strategies for managing attention, setting boundaries around decisions, and cultivating an experimental mindset. You can watch this episode on YouTube. Rumination Course: Rick’s 5-week online course Breaking Out of Rumination starts on March 29th. Rumination is a big pain point for many people, and this course will help you learn how to break repetitive patterns of thought. Learn more at RickHanson.com/ruminating, and use coupon code BeingWell25 to receive a 25% discount. Key Topics: 0:00: Introduction 1:40: When self-awareness gets in the way 8:15: Rumination vs. reflection 13:25: Developing passion for the ‘useful truth’, and working with obsession 16:45: Beginner’s mind and self-concept 25:15: The 90/10 approach to overthinking 31:15: Seeing what’s liberating, naming what’s important, seeing your full self 35:05: Managing your attention, and self-trust 42:00: Thinking vs. taking useful action 50:35: Letting yourself experiment 54:00: Self-acceptance, and having a spirit of openness 58:10: Avoiding the unknown 1:00:35: Recap I am now writing on Substack, check out my work there. Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. Sponsors Zocdoc helps you find expert doctors and medical professionals that specialize in the care you need. Head to zocdoc.com/being and download the Zocdoc app for FREE. Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at shopify.com/beingwell. Get 15% off OneSkin with the code BEINGWELL at https://www.oneskin.co/ Go to ZOE.com and find out what ZOE Membership could do for you. Use code WELL10 to get 10% off membership. Field of Greens from Brickhouse Nutrition is a superfood powder packed with vitamins, minerals, fiber, and antioxidants. Use the code BEINGWELL at fieldofgreens.com for 20% off your first order. Connect with the show: Subscribe on iTunes Follow Forrest on YouTube Follow us on Instagram Follow Forrest on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Visit Forrest's website Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to being well. I'm Forrest Hansen. If you're new to the show, thanks for joining us today. And if you've listened before, welcome back. I'm joined today as usual by Dr. Rick Hansen. Rick is a clinical psychologist, a best-selling author. And he's also my dad. So dad, how are you doing
0:21.0	today? I'm great and psyched about our topic. Yeah, same. So today we're going to be talking
0:26.0	about overthinking, rumination, and what I've started to call the self-awareness trap. There's
0:31.3	a kind of irony to our information age. There is so much stuff out there. We have more knowledge than ever, and yet it feels like
0:39.9	some people tend to feel a bit paralyzed by all of that information. There are so many ideas and
0:45.4	opinions and perspectives that even fairly simple decisions can feel overwhelmingly complex.
0:51.9	And this is maybe particularly true when it comes to working with our
0:54.6	minds and improving our lives, the topics that we focus on on this podcast. We've talked
0:59.3	before about the 9010 rule and how to improve our focus, but today I wanted to explore how
1:04.3	these concepts apply specifically to breaking free from patterns of overthinking, when we just
1:10.2	chew on the same thing over and over again,
1:13.3	or we feel overwhelmed by information and can't make a good decision because of it.
1:18.3	And before we begin, I wanted to give you a quick reminder about Rick's five-week online
1:21.8	rumination course. That starts on March 29th. It focuses on helping us learn how to let
1:26.5	go of repetitive patterns of thought,
1:28.4	which is, of course, part of what we're going to be talking about today. And you can learn more
1:31.8	about that at rickhansen.com slash ruminating and use coupon code being well 25 to receive a 25%
1:40.1	off discount. So, Dad, let's start with this self-awareness trap that I just mentioned.
1:44.8	I have talked to so many people who say something to me along the lines of. I feel like I'm a
1:51.0	very self-aware person, and I even have a conversation with my therapist where I get into the
1:55.5	room and I say, here are all the things that are going on in my life, and here are all the
2:00.3	patterns that I have,
	...

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