Am I suppressing thoughts if I stop ruminating?

A common challenge that comes up when people drop the ruminating and mental compulsions is that it feels wrong. It feels so strange to go and live our lives out in the real world when we've spent most of it up in our heads.

(It's called THE MIND WORKOUT in the UK and Australia/New Zealand, DAS MIND-WORKOUT in Deutsch, ENTRENA TU MENTE en español)

[BrownBoy-xvxr]

Can't thank God enough for your channel brother. It's like you're slowly helping me to escape from one this worst prison inside my head! 👏

[nealmccoy]

The full OCD experience summarized in a 10 minute video. It is just so strange that YOU as an individual feel like you are "different;" your case is "unique." It is just another mind illusion. OCD works extremely similar or the same for most, if not all sufferers of it.

[CreeperShorts]

Brother, thank you so so much for this video. So much wisdom here.
For example, "don't we have to perfectly process our trauma, grief" - these are OCD's thoughts hijacking my brain when trying to heal. Hearing you lay out these words, and realizing it is actually just OCD, is insane. I've been obsessing with "healing" for the past 3-4 years. And yes, living our lives is what the "solution" is - we heal trauma by making us feel safe in the present. We don't need to go back to fix it (even though my OCD really wants to).

[MrRapstars]

This video is so dense in information and eye opening. I've watched it three times and I still feel like I'm only scratching the surface and truly understanding what you're trying to convey. Love it.

[joucoco]

This was the single most important video I've seen on youtube ever. Seriously. 100% you have saved lives.

[ThisOffendsMeTV]

Yourself, Nathan Peterson, Drew Linsalata and Reid Wilson the 4 champs of destroying OCD. Truly.

[JamesDurcan]

Mark, you have helped me in so many ways....Thank you for your genuine care in helping others..

[stankylegg]

Nailed it again Mark! Like you’re in my brain.

So crazy how dead on this is. I’m living my life and my brain says there’s no way it can be this easy. There has to be something to overcome. Has to be an obstacle. Has to be a problem to solve. Has to be a compulsion that needs to be done. Just living life seems to simple like Where’s the catch.

Truly believing there is “no catch” is the hardest leap of faith to make. But the most impactful I would imagine!

[billtrantos]

I was in the early stages of yet another cycle of compulsions and ruminations, after the first calm period in a while. Your advice helped me refocus on the Now and the real world around me. Thank you Mark. OCPD here :)

[lilsler]

Not gonna lie you cooked with this one🔥🔥🔥

[Britpopsoul]

Been recently practicing living my life whilst having any thought or feeling and my head feels like it’s going to explode😂

[stankylegg]

This message is so strong and powerful for ocd sufferers.

[xcintiax]

Ruminating = distraction, Living your life = practice!
Funny I realised that I used "manifestation" to continue my ruminating and compulsive thoughts patterns... and I thought this was me helping myself. I can't say thank you enough for your videos, it has helped me understand myself and my behaviours and slowly I am improving my life because of this.

[rxvnn]

I realized now that the ONLY problem I think we all here have is that we hate on everything. I was hating on thoughts, hating emotions, hating people, hating weather, hating clothes, hating pain, hating and hating and hating and hating and what all this hate is giving me is a closed road. All of this got me where I was, in a dark "WRONG" painful place waiting for some magic feeling to happen. If I continue to hate on everything even after 5 10 20 89 years I will be in the same place, probably even worse, certainly worse because ai can see where this road goes. I stopped hating because of this, I know where I'm going if I hate so THE ONLY OPTION is to have compassion, to learn that every thought, every sensation, every emotion can be there and it has a reason why it is there. Even if I believe that is wrong to have some thought and I'm doing lets say a compolsion, that is OK everything is OK, this is the only choice healthy choice I can do and than learn and be curious. Sorry for my bad english and mistakes, but its ok to make mistakes and I wrote this message for you all because I want to give this advice from my experience. The hating road is closed trust me, or maybe better trust your experience with it . Start having compassion, even if you want to get rid of something, make that ok, it is ok, and learn from there.

[gingerisevil]

Thank you for putting this feeling into words. I wish more therapists understood ocd and anxiety like this, I’ve been judged for having this.

Mine overlaps my CPTSD which makes it hard.

[xdiaz]

I got a little emotional hearing this bec it’s been such a massive internal struggle for me lately. I can’t thank you enough for your help🙏

[swiftskilly]

For me personally, learning the idea that rumination was a choice instead of something that happened automatically made me feel the most empowered and gave back my sense of agency. I’m addition, instead of feeling a void of insecurity when I stopped doing it, I felt a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. That’s when I knew I was finally free.

[TSal]

Mark, after years of struggling with OCD and with one ruined relationship on the verge of another due to this, you've finally given me hope this can be done. Thank you.

[Keyfaze]

where has this channel been for most of my life

[catamunt]

You and Joanna Hardis have done more for me than years of therapy and any dedicated OCD account on social media. Thank you for all of your content and your experience.