Ruminating is a common experience where a person gets trapped in repetitive negative thinking patterns often fueled by anxiety, unresolved emotions, or past experiences. In Buddhism, the Twelve Nidanas of dependent origination explain how negative thought patterns can arise and perpetuate through habitual patterns and conditioning.

The Twelve Nidanas include ignorance, mental formations, consciousness, name and form, the six sense bases, contact, feeling, craving, clinging, becoming, birth, and old age and death. Understanding how these links relate to ruminating can help individuals cultivate mindfulness and work towards breaking the cycle of negative thinking, ultimately leading to greater peace and freedom from suffering.

To break the cycle of negative ruminating, one can take steps such as cultivating wisdom and insight, practicing mindfulness, developing awareness of mental habits and biases, and reducing identification with negative thoughts and emotions. By practicing restraint of the senses, developing equanimity, and recognizing negative patterns of thought, one can reduce the potential for perpetuating suffering and mental distress in the present moment.