This phenomenon even has a name: rumination, but that’s not the point. You can think about anything. And there are no boundaries in these reflections, or rather they exist, they simply end with our imagination. This doesn't always work for us. Sometimes it’s against it. And probably, the richer the imagination and the sharper the thoughts, the more options for their development, which is why they are endless. If you don’t set a goal for thinking, then you may not stop. So, as they say, you can go crazy. Thinking is a skill, a skill. We all have it, but what if we don't always use it correctly? Imagine a meat grinder. You immerse the minced meat in it, scroll it, and after it comes out, put it back in, repeating the cycle. And how long can you spin it like that? I think endlessly. But at what point does it become unusable? And how soon will your hand get tired of twisting and even the meat grinder will begin to protest? But if you initially decided to make cutlets, you will probably stop after you are satisfied with the desired consistency of the minced meat. Probably something similar happens to the brain; when chewing the same thing, it gets tired. But as a rule, a person does not stop there, but continues to spin the same thoughts. He has a lot of questions, like - “Why? For what? When will this end?”... When asking them, he does not try to answer them, but seems to wait for the answer to fall on him. But the answer does not appear and the person may fall into despair. But what if we pose the questions differently and try to answer them? For example, instead of “When will this end,” ask, “Can I do anything to make this end? If so, what exactly? And what do I want instead of what is happening now?” I think the last question is the most important, because as Fromm believed (and I agree with him), simply running away “from” usually does not lead to good things. Such questions provide an answer, that is, an end result, which should be a consequence of thinking about something specific. What if a solution still cannot be found? What if this case, this situation, scrolling through your head, is one in a million millions, and has no solutions? Is this really true? If so, then why think about it? There is a myth that if you think about something a lot, then you will find a solution. This is one of the pitfalls of rumination. How not to get into it? Set yourself a goal of reflection, asking yourself specific questions that you are able (!) to answer. And if these are thoughts about what could happen, but has not happened yet; or about what happened, but which can no longer be corrected - then in such cases there is even less hope for a result. But realizing this hardly helps. Thoughts continue to swarm in my head. So if they don’t provide for a result, but still don’t give you peace, then let them stay. Sooner or later, this chewing gum will lose its taste and the brain will get tired of chewing it. The more you try to drown out such thoughts, the more confident they will sound. But you shouldn’t give them reinforcements either. It’s like when you’re riding in a minibus, some stupid song is playing on the radio, and it feels like wax is dripping onto your ears, and you can’t turn it down, but you wouldn’t turn it up louder if you had the opportunity, right??