Three Ways to Work with an Overthinking Mind
From Rumination to Resilience
In our last Dharma Lab podcast, we explored why our minds are so restless and why rumination so often tilts negative. This time, we turn to a practical question: what can we actually do about it?
Buddhist psychology offers three distinct strategies for dealing with overthinking: Remove, Transform, and Transcend. Each one works in a very different way—let’s walk through them.
Strategy 1: Remove (or Remove and Replace)
The first strategy is to work with unruly thoughts by either preventing them from arising or by counteracting them once they’ve taken root. Think of these as Plan A and Plan B.
Plan A is prevention: notice what triggers rumination and avoid those situations when possible. For example, if reaching for your phone first thing in the morning sparks a stream of anxious thoughts, keep your phone outside your bedroom. Or if a certain friend tends to slip into gossip that leaves you feeling drained, create some boundaries so you’re less likely to get pulled into the negativity.
Plan B comes into play when restless or ruminative thoughts show up anyway—which they inevitably will, because there’s no version of being human where we can completely avoid mental and emotional reactivity. In these moments, the task is to redirect the energy of the mind.
One effective way is to shift attention into the body: notice the sensations of breathing, take a few slow, deep breaths to calm the nervous system, or do a gentle body scan. This can be especially helpful before bed. Another option is to intentionally cultivate uplifting thoughts, such as appreciation and gratitude. You might reflect on all the people who made your clothing, prepared your food, or contributed to the many things you enjoy in daily life.
The specific practice matters less than the intention: choosing to replace toxic or draining thoughts with ones that are nourishing and life-giving. It takes awareness, but with practice, this becomes a powerful antidote to the mind’s tendency toward rumination.
Strategy 2: Transform
With this approach, instead of trying to change or eliminate thoughts, we fundamentally shift how we relate to them. The thoughts themselves become the object of meditation.
You can see the thoughts as thoughts. You’re not trying to get rid of them. You’re not trying to push them away. Simply observing them will shift your relationship to them.
Neuroscientifically, this involves changes in brain connectivity. When you’re lost in rumination, the default mode network (associated with self-referential thinking) becomes highly connected to the salience network (which determines what seems important). Observing your thoughts helps decouple these networks—the thoughts are still there, but they don’t hijack your attention with the same intensity.
Transforming can also open new doors. A difficult thought can become a bridge to compassion: I’m struggling right now, and so are countless others. May we all be free from this kind of suffering. Or it can spark insight: How is this thought shaping the way I see myself or the world? In this way, a restless mind can become your teacher.
Strategy 3: Transcend
The most subtle approach involves investigating the very nature of your experience. You get curious and see what you can learn by examining and exploring the unfolding of your thoughts and feelings in response to whatever is happening in the moment.
Research with long-term meditators shows this vividly in the realm of pain. When exposed to heat in the lab, they felt the physical sensation, but without the same distress that usually accompanies it. In Buddhist terms, they experienced the “first arrow” of pain but not the “second arrow” of mental anguish layered on top. See our prior write up on the topic of the two arrows here.
A similar dynamic exists with anxiety. When we investigate closely—asking, What even is this?—you can see it as shifting thoughts, changing body sensations, a kind of emotional weather.
And in non-dual traditions, this points even deeper: to a recognition that our true nature is already pure, spacious, and imbued with awareness and compassion. Meditation doesn’t create this; it helps us uncover what is already there.
The key to this approach is the shift from doing to being. Normally we try to “do” our way to inner freedom, but that doesn’t work here. We are uncovering what is already present, not achieving some new and improved state of mind. So “transcending” restless thoughts does not mean we get rid of them, or even transform them. It means that we’re learning to see the vast field of awareness within which they arise and dissolve.
Flourishing is Infectious
One great moment from our conversation was Richie sharing a story about a monk who came to Madison for research. After the monk left, the hotel manager called—not to complain about billing, but to thank Richie for bringing such a kind person to stay there. Every interaction, from the check-in desk to the breakfast counter, had been touched by this monk’s warmth.
That’s the power of practice: the qualities we cultivate in our own minds ripple out to others. Flourishing is infectious.
Finding Your Path
These three strategies aren’t mutually exclusive—most of us will find different approaches helpful at different times. The key is developing a toolkit and the wisdom to know which tool serves us best in any given moment.
Whether we’re removing triggers, transforming our relationship to thoughts, or investigating the very nature of experience itself, we’re engaging in perhaps the most important work we can do—not just for ourselves, but for everyone whose lives we touch.
What strategies have you found most helpful for working with overthinking? We’d love to hear your experiences in the comments below.
With warmth and appreciation,
Cort + Richie
🎧 Tune in later this week on the podcast for the full conversation. We’ll share stories, science, and simple ways to understand and further explore our minds.
Do you have topics you would like to see in future posts, suggestions for features, or areas of improvement? We would love to hear from you HERE!
I found this very helpful as someone who often experiences negative rumination.
Thank you. Very easy to understand and use these three strategies. The way you both teach models what it means to be calm, cool and collected.