How to Reduce Rumination and Overthinking During the Holiday Season
The holiday season is often portrayed as a time of warmth, connection, and celebration—but for many people, it can feel overwhelming. Increased social demands, family dynamics, travel, financial pressures, and memories from previous holidays can act as triggers that heighten anxiety. As a result, it’s incredibly common to notice a spike in mental loops, intrusive worries, and “what-if” spirals this time of year. This is where techniques to reduce rumination and overthinking become especially valuable.
Rumination and overthinking thrive when life feels busy, expectations feel heavy, and emotions become more complex. The holidays bring all three together. Even people who typically cope well can find themselves drifting into late-night worry sessions, replaying conversations, or mentally rehearsing future scenarios that may never happen. Using intentional, structured techniques to reduce rumination and overthinking can help you regulate your mind, stay grounded, and actually enjoy the parts of the season that matter most.
Below are practical, evidence-informed strategies that you can integrate into your routine. These approaches are commonly supported within CBT, mindfulness-based interventions, and trauma-informed practice—and they can be especially powerful during the holidays when emotional bandwidth is stretched thin.
During the holidays, adults often feel pressure to “hold it all together”—managing logistics, emotionally supporting others, planning gatherings, and pushing through stress with a smile. This internalized pressure contributes to higher rates of rumination.
1. Use “Stop the Thought” to Interrupt the Spiral
One of the simplest and most effective techniques to reduce rumination and overthinking is the CBT-based “Stop the Thought” approach. This tool helps interrupt the cycle before it gains momentum.
When you notice your mind beginning to spiral—maybe you’re mentally replaying a holiday conversation or worrying about how family dinner will go—pause and clearly say, either in your mind or out loud: “Stop.”
This interruption accomplishes two things:
It disrupts the automatic flow of the rumination.
It gives you a moment to intentionally choose a different mental direction.
From there, redirect your attention to something specific: a grounding exercise, a task in front of you, a calming phrase, or a sensory anchor (like noticing the temperature of your mug or the way the room smells). The combination of interruption + redirection is one of the foundational techniques to reduce rumination and overthinking, and with practice it becomes faster and more effective.
2. Journal to Externalize the Thoughts
Journaling is one of the most accessible and powerful holiday-season techniques to reduce rumination and overthinking because it transforms internal chatter into something tangible. Rumination is circular—it loops endlessly because there’s no output. Writing breaks the loop.
Try one of these journal prompts:
What is the story my mind is telling me right now?
What am I afraid might happen? What evidence supports or contradicts that?
If a friend were feeling this way, what would I say to them?
What do I actually need right now?
You don’t have to write something insightful or well-structured; the goal is simply to take the thought out of your head and put it onto paper.
For many people, this becomes one of their go-to techniques to reduce rumination and overthinking because the physical act of writing engages different parts of the brain, slows down the intensity of thoughts, and creates separation between “you” and the worry.
3. Verbalize Thoughts to Reduce Mental Load
During the holidays, adults often feel pressure to “hold it all together”—managing logistics, emotionally supporting others, planning gatherings, and pushing through stress with a smile. This internalized pressure contributes to higher rates of rumination.
Sharing your thoughts with someone you trust is one of the most effective techniques to reduce rumination and overthinking because it removes the secrecy and isolation that rumination feeds on.
Verbalizing thoughts helps in several ways:
It gives your brain a break from holding everything inside.
It allows another person to reflect back a more balanced perspective.
It forces your thoughts into coherent sentences, which often reveals their distortions.
It increases emotional regulation through connection and co-regulation.
You don’t need a long, deep conversation. Even saying something like, “My mind is spiraling about the holiday schedule, and I just need to get it out,” can dramatically reduce mental load.
If talking to someone isn’t an option, consider voice-memo journaling. The act of vocalizing still serves the same purpose.
4. Practice Mindfulness to Anchor the Present Moment
Mindfulness is not about “clearing your mind.” It’s about noticing your thoughts and gently bringing your attention back to the present without judgment. During the holiday season, when routines change, environments shift, and sensory input increases, mindfulness becomes essential.
Mindfulness is consistently demonstrated in research as one of the most impactful techniques for reducing rumination and overthinking, as it strengthens your ability to observe a thought instead of getting caught up in it.
Here are simple holiday-friendly mindfulness practices:
Five Senses Grounding: Pause and name 1 thing you can see, hear, feel, smell, and (if safe) taste.
Breathing Around the Rim of the Mug: Hold a warm drink and breathe in its aroma slowly. Let the warmth anchor your body.
Mindful Walking: While walking to the mailbox or through a store, pay attention to the sensation of your feet moving.
Micro-Mindfulness Moments: Take 10 seconds before entering a social event to notice your breath and reset your nervous system.
Integrating even small mindfulness practices throughout the day can build a powerful buffer against holiday stress and strengthen your use of techniques to reduce rumination and overthinking.
5. Create a Holiday “Thought Plan” Ahead of Time
Many people experience predictable rumination triggers during the holiday season. You might anticipate stressful conversations, financial worries, travel concerns, or memories of difficult past holidays.
A structured “thought plan” is one of the most proactive techniques to reduce rumination and overthinking. It involves identifying:
Your predictable triggers (e.g., family conflict, crowded stores, expectations from relatives)
The typical thoughts that arise (e.g., “I’m failing,” “I can’t handle this,” “They’re upset with me”)
Your chosen coping responses (e.g., grounding exercises, Stop The Thought, journaling, stepping outside for air)
Creating a plan in advance helps you feel more prepared and gives you a menu of responses to choose from instead of defaulting to spiraling.
6. Use Values to Redirect Mental Energy
Another evidence-based approach is reconnecting with values. Rumination pulls you into the past or future. Values bring you back to what matters now.
Ask yourself:
What is the kind of person I want to be in this moment?
What actually aligns with my values for the holidays this year?
Is this thought helping me show up in a way that feels meaningful?
Values help redirect your attention away from unproductive worry and toward purposeful action. This makes values-based decision-making one of the more advanced but powerful techniques to reduce rumination and overthinking.
7. Build in Small Restorative Breaks
The brain ruminates more when it is exhausted. Many people push through the holiday season at full speed—social events, hosting, shopping, long travel days—and then feel surprised when anxiety spikes.
Taking small, restorative breaks is one of the simplest techniques to reduce rumination and overthinking because it resets the nervous system. A restorative break does not include scrolling on your phone! This might include:
A 3-minute breathing exercise in the car
A short walk after a family meal
Listening to calming music while wrapping gifts
Going to bed 20 minutes earlier
Having a sensory “reset” such as cuddling with a soft pet or holding something warm
These micro-breaks reduce the cognitive fatigue that fuels overthinking.
8. Offer Yourself Compassion, Not Criticism
Rumination often grows stronger when paired with self-criticism. Many people judge themselves harshly for having anxiety during a time when they feel they “should” be joyful. But compassion is one of the most underrated techniques to reduce rumination and overthinking.
Try phrases such as:
“It makes sense that I’m feeling overwhelmed.”
“This is a hard moment, and I’m doing the best I can.”
“It’s okay to take a break.”
Compassion reduces shame, softens internal pressure, and helps your nervous system settle so the brain doesn’t feel the need to spiral.
Closing Thoughts
The holidays bring beauty, connection, and meaning—but they also bring stress, complexity, and emotional demands. If you notice an increase in mental loops this season, you’re not alone. Using structured, accessible techniques to reduce rumination and overthinking can help you navigate the holidays with more clarity, steadiness, and presence.
Whether you’re practicing “Stop the Thought,” journaling, verbalizing worries, or engaging in mindful grounding, each small step helps train your mind to shift out of spiraling and return to the present moment. These techniques to reduce rumination and overthinking are not about perfection—they are about building resilience, regulating your nervous system, and supporting yourself with intention.
If rumination or anxiety feels overwhelming, therapy can offer deeper tools and personalized support. But even on your own, integrating consistent techniques to reduce rumination and overthinking can make a meaningful difference in how you experience the holiday season.
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Rumination and overthinking often increase during the holidays because the season brings added stressors—such as family dynamics, financial pressure, disrupted routines, travel, and emotional memories. When stress rises and bandwidth decreases, the brain becomes more vulnerable to looping thoughts. This makes techniques to reduce rumination and overthinking especially important during this time of year.
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Some of the fastest-acting methods include:
Thought-stopping (“Stop the thought”)
Grounding through the five senses
Slow, diaphragmatic breathing
Redirecting attention to a specific task
Saying the thought out loud to break the mental loop
These tools help interrupt the cycle, calm the nervous system, and create mental space for more balanced thinking.
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Yes. Journaling is one of the most evidence-supported techniques to reduce rumination and overthinking because it moves thoughts out of the mind and onto paper. This breaks the circular thought pattern, increases clarity, and lowers emotional intensity. Even a few minutes of “brain dumping” can significantly reduce mental overwhelm.
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If rumination feels overwhelming, chronic, or is affecting daily functioning, it may be time to seek support from a therapist. A clinician can offer personalized tools, identify underlying anxiety or trauma patterns, and help you build a sustainable plan using structured techniques to reduce rumination and overthinking. Therapy can be particularly helpful during the holidays when emotional triggers are more pronounced.
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No. Rumination feels circular, draining, and stuck. Problem-solving feels forward-moving, structured, and purposeful. Rumination tends to increase anxiety, while problem-solving tends to reduce it. Learning to distinguish between the two helps you choose the right techniques to reduce rumination and overthinking instead of remaining stuck in mental loops.
