Definition
Rumination costs name the downstream price of passive replay — mood, cognition, and problem solving worsen when distress is rehearsed without movement.
Origin
Nolen-Hoeksema, Wisco, and Lyubomirsky update response styles theory — rumination exacerbates depression and impairs problem solving relative to more active or distracting strategies in the synthesised evidence.
Mechanism
Not all self-reflection is rumination — analytical and problem-solving forms show mixed results — but passive brooding on distress reliably correlates with worse outcomes across domains they review.
Applications
When rest-day syntax fires (it will be better when), ask: is this fuel, passive replay, or adaptive planning? Only the last earns the label reflection.
Sources
Cite
- Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Wisco, B. E., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2008). Rethinking rumination. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3(5), 400–424.