Repetitive behaviour

[AlwaysAFaithful]

I just wondered if anybody else does this. If I’ve done something that I’m pleased about like tidied up a room in the house or if I have a good presentation at work I feel compelled to revisit the situation in my mind repeatedly.

An example would be quite recently I had to give a speech a public event. It went well but now I keep repeatedly looking at the text of the speech and reliving it again in my head. It feels a tad obsessive.

do you do this? I’m guessing it’s not too harmful but I’m pretty sure I waste quite a lot of time doing this

If it is not interfering with your actual daily life, it sounds pretty harmless. But if you want to redirect it you could buy a specific journal and spend 5 minutes a day writing out what went well for you. You could then set aside a chunk of time, a coffee on a Sunday, to sit with your journal and re read and reminisce. By doing something like this you are giving space to your desire to remember the good stuff, but setting limits, x mins a day to write, and x times a week to reminisce.
To be honest focusing on the good stuff sounds pretty positive!

If something good happens I tend to tell about five people the same story. It sounds fairly normal.

Maybe also reflect on why it went well for you as that tends to bring a nice feeling of satisfaction that you can carry forward with you.

Thank you - journaling / reflection sounds like a good way of this not just being what feels like a kind of stuck repetition.

better than obsessively thinking about things that have gone wrong!

That’s very true. I used to do that so maybe this is my brain’s way of crowding out negativity.