Reflections on Rumination and the Ethereal Floating Mind

Recently, I’ve been thinking about rumination as a topic, its impact on me, its downsides, and possible solutions. I'm trying to stop it. I was in Goa recently, where I did a complete digital detox for about a week. I went in expecting to let my mind ruminate freely, just watching whatever thoughts came. But what ended up happening was that I almost didn’t ruminate at all.

I sat on the balcony doing nothing, hoping deeper topics would come up, but nothing happened; it was all blank. I did enjoy the view and the calmness, but I was left questioning what happened. Why do I ruminate so much normally, yet here I wasn't ruminating at all? The answer might have been in the space and environment: there were no background tasks or troubles, and my mind felt like it was in vacation mode, ready to switch everything off.

For the entire week, I felt like I had zero emotions. There were no negative or positive thoughts, no rumination. I was just floating, doing simple activities, sleeping, lying down, meditating. I experienced an immense calmness that I had never felt before. Let's call it the “Ethereal Floating Mind.”

I’ve always been an overthinker, a deep thinker trying to understand topics at a granular level. This helps me understand constructs of nature, mind, and people, but it often comes with the side effect of detachment from life and the present moment. I’ve been thinking about how to limit or control overthinking, how to have command over when the mind should ruminate and when it should not. The answer isn’t easy, but this Goa trip made me realize that the mind actually needs to shut off at times. When you pause and sit staring at a wall, sometimes the mind stops. I don't know why it happens, but it does. Looking into the distance at far-off objects, or at plants and trees, are some ways I've found to bring that calmness, and when that calmness comes, it stops the mind from wandering.

This calmness also brought a sense of peace. My brain activity and heart rate were low; my body felt relaxed. Another way I've found to calm the mind is self-talk. Overthinking is just your mind wandering off to la-la land, and you have to rein it back in. Sometimes I literally say to myself, “What are you doing, bro? This is unhealthy. I haven’t commanded you to overthink, so shut the fuck off.” (Your internal voice can be a bit milder in reality.)

Interestingly, when I sit down to write this blog, I actually instruct my mind to think deeply. Writing a blog is where I shine because it requires a chain of thought; in that case, rumination is the right tool. Overthinking has always been my go-to approach because I can stitch thoughts together and run longer and longer thought lines. Sometimes I can even run an entire Python code in my mind before I touch the keyboard. But this skill can also take me quickly into a negative direction, into depressive thoughts. This blog is my way of tackling those negative cycles.

Another tool I’ve found helpful is talking things out loud, ideally with a therapist. This can push you to think even more, which is counterintuitive, but once you’ve talked it out, you’ve often exhausted the overthinking cycle. You’ve reached the end of that thought line, and there’s nothing left to think. In that sense, the more thought lines you complete, the better. Eventually, you’ll run out of things to overthink.

These are my ways of dealing with rumination, and I’m still trying new strategies. The key is experimentation: observe when you slip into the Ethereal Floating Mind state and try to replicate those conditions or environments as closely as possible, so you can hop in and out of that zone when needed.