A coaching theme this week has been rumination. In NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) theory, there is a presupposition that every human behaviour has a positive intention. In other words, even the most detrimental behaviours will be serving us in some way.

Take smoking, whilst we all know it negatively impacts our health, if we smoke it can be a very useful way to strike up a conversation with strangers, to take a break or instantly relax the body.

Or procrastination. If we procrastinate, we successfully avoid hard or boring work.

But ruminating? I just can’t figure it out. So I googled it. And nope, it appears that ‘repetitive thinking or dwelling on negative feelings and distress and their causes and consequences’ only leads to or exacerbates anxiety and depression.

So how about dropping a fiver in a money jar if you catch yourself ruminating? That way, you can at least cheer yourself up by treating yourself with the proceeds.