“One of the reasons I, and others, ruminate is because we think it’s useful. Like, we think we are planning, we think we are preparing, we think we are solving a problem,
“But once you actually get this language and this model, you start to see it doesn’t do anything useful for you. There are better strategies.”
Petrie has spent years studying sustainable performance, burnout prevention and how people cope in high-pressure environments. His own interest in stress began after cancer treatment in his 20s, when he found himself physically recovering but mentally consumed by fear it would return.
Petrie later met British academic Dr Derek Rodger, whose work examined why people can respond differently to the same high-pressure situation.
Rodger told Petrie, “I can’t help you with the cancer, but here’s what to do about your stress”, and taught him about separating pressure from stress, then spotting and interrupting rumination.
After applying Rodger’s approach, Petrie says his stress levels dropped from “10 out of 10” to zero, even when the cancer later came back.
He says one of the most important steps is learning to recognise rumination for what it is.
Nick Petrie is an organisational psychologist and burnout expert. Photo / Victoria Vincent
“When we ruminate, we think about events from the past or future, and we attach negative emotion and churn over and over and over. So you might wake up at 3am, and you start ruminating about events, or you do it on your commute.
“And most of us just think, ‘well, that’s thinking’. But once you actually learn about this, you realise once you add the negative emotion, that’s the rumination part. It’s not just thinking, it’s stress.”
Petrie says that doesn’t mean avoidance is a good strategy. The key is understanding the difference between useful reflection and getting stuck in a loop.
“When you are doing it in a positive or neutral way, that’s reflection. When you add in the negative emotion, it turns into rumination,” he says.
“With reflection we tend to think about it, come to closure. But the rumination, it’s open-ended, it keeps going. So that’s what we’ve got to watch out for.”
The first practical step is to notice it and name it. Petrie says he’s seen people successfully interrupt the pattern by telling themselves they are ruminating.
“The awareness is the starting point,” he says.
Listen to the full episode of The Little Things to find out:
Why ‘pulsing’ through the workday may be better than grinding.How an ‘opposite world’ can help switch off your work brain.The three stages of burnout, and why waiting until collapse is a terrible strategy.
The Little Things is available on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. The series is hosted by broadcaster Francesca Rudkin and health researcher Louise Ayrey. New episodes are available every second Saturday.