How to stop ruminating?

Using uncertainty statements also help - "this may or may not have happened and I can handle that". This one is harder but sometimes even just asking yourself "do I want to be thinking about this right now?" and then saying no and then doing grounding techniques can be helpful too

Try grounding techniques, Google it, one of them involves observing 5 different things with each sense

This is helpful: https://drmichaeljgreenberg.com/rumination-focused-erp-turning-exposure-on-its-head/ start by making sure you’re not ruminating about what you’re about to do. Now let’s do it without ruminating about it. I want you to chop those vegetables without ruminating about the fact that you’re holding a sharp knife around your kids. We are aware of it, but we’re not ruminating about it. What’s your anxiety level? Higher than zero or one? I think you’re ruminating. Don’t engage. Is your anxiety back down? Excellent. (Let’s say we did this for 5 minutes, while making sure anxiety levels stayed close to zero.) Okay, so you saw that even when you were doing something really scary, as long as you refrained from ruminating about it, you didn’t feel very anxious. So this week, you’re going to stop avoiding using a knife while the kids are around, and you’re going to make sure not to ruminate about it while you’re doing it. Here’s another example: We’ve agreed that you’re going to stop keeping track (i.e., paying attention, which is a form of rumination) of what is and is not contaminated, because that is actually what makes you feel anxious. So you’re going to take this contaminated towel and walk around the house touching as many things as possible with it. While you’re doing that, you’re not going to ruminate about what you’re doing, or pay attention to what has been contaminated. All done, good job. Now we’re going to hang out and not ruminate; you’re not going to figure out what is or isn’t contaminated, or try to figure out a plan for decontaminating things, or try to figure out how you’re going to handle this later. Just hang out and don’t ruminate. What’s your anxiety level? Higher than zero or one? I think you’re ruminating. Don’t engage. Is your anxiety back down? Excellent. Okay so you see that even when things are contaminated, if you don’t ruminate about the situation, you don’t feel very anxious. So this week, you’re going to repeat this twice a day, and anytime you see something that isn’t contaminated, you’re going to contaminate it. And most important, you are going to eliminate any rumination about contamination, not just during the exposure but at all times. Rumination-Focused ERP is obviously less distressing to patients. This is not only an inherent advantage, but also a major boon to treatment compliance. In addition to making ERP much more palatable, this approach has the invaluable added benefit of showing a person that they can control their anxiety by controlling their rumination. For individuals who have felt constantly at the mercy of their anxiety, the significance of this cannot be overstated. RF-ERP is ERP inasmuch as it involves confronting triggers and anything avoided while eliminating compulsions. But it’s also true that this approach is significantly different, in both theory and practice, from the original ERP, and that a distinction between the two is therefore warranted.