Rumination

“I keep rehearsing what I'm going to say to my boss tomorrow and none of the versions end well.”

“My son said I was embarrassing him in front of his friends and I keep turning it over in my head even though he's been asleep for hours.”

“I corrected someone in a meeting today and they looked annoyed and I've been second-guessing whether I was right ever since.”

“I opened his texts from two years ago again and I don't know what I'm looking for exactly.”

“I said something edgy in the group chat to seem funny and no one responded and I've been staring at it for twenty minutes.”

“I've read four self-help books in three months and I think they're making things worse by making me analyze everything I do.”

“I keep looking at my old photos not because I miss that time but because I can't figure out when exactly things shifted.”

“I woke up in the middle of the night and my first thought was about something I said to someone in 2017.”

“My doctor said the numbers are fine but I've been lying awake thinking about the ones that were borderline.”

“I check his location sometimes not because I don't trust him but because the app is there and I have a brain that does this.”

“I've lost count of how many Sunday nights I've felt exactly this way and it's starting to feel permanent.”

“I walked into the kitchen for something and stood there for a full minute and couldn't remember what it was and I'm only 34.”

“I keep thinking about that one comment my English teacher made when I was sixteen and how much it still shapes what I write.”

“I went to my college reunion and came home feeling not nostalgic but confused about the choices that led from there to here.”

“I lie awake and run through everything I have to do tomorrow and then I'm too tired to do any of it when it comes.”

“I had the thought that I might be doing okay today and then I immediately looked for evidence against it.”

“I don't recognize the person in videos from a few years ago and I'm not sure if that's growth or loss.”