Have you ever found yourself stuck in a negativity vortex?  Something challenging happens at work, or you make a mistake, and before you know it, you’ve lost hours – and sometimes days – worrying about the potential fall-out as you recycle your negative thoughts over and over again, only to later discover that almost none of those fears came to pass.

Don’t worry, you’re in good company.

“When negative things happen, we reflect on them to try and make sense of the experience,” explained Professor Ethan Kross from the University of Michigan when I interviewed him recently.  “However, instead of learning from our experiences, and then moving on with our lives, we can get stuck in rumination and worry.  And this cyclical negative thinking can be really toxic for our health, our relationships, our performance at work, and our wellbeing.” 

Fortunately, Ethan and his team are finding several easy-to-implement psychological techniques that can help you learn and grow from your experiences, without getting drawn into the negative vortex. 

Read the full article at Psychology Today.