ACCEPTS (Distraction Skills):

Purpose:
To distract yourself from distressing thoughts or emotions when you can't solve the problem in the moment.

How to Do It (using the acronym):

Activities:
Engage in activities you enjoy. (Reading, hobbies, watching a movie).

Contributing:
Do something for someone else. (Helping a friend, volunteering).

Comparisons:
Compare your situation to people coping less well, or to a time you coped better. (Use with caution; focus on learning and perspective, not diminishing your own struggle).

Emotions:
Create different emotions. (Listen to different music, watch a funny video).

Pushing Away:
Temporarily push the situation out of your mind. (Imagine a wall between you and the thought, put it on a shelf).

Thoughts:
Replace distressing thoughts with other thoughts. (Count things, do a mental puzzle, recite lyrics).

Sensations:
Experience intense physical sensations. (Hold an ice cube, take a hot/cold shower, squeeze a stress ball).

Relevance to Rumination:
This is a direct strategy to "Interrupt the Thought Cycle" by shifting your attention away from the loop when you're overwhelmed.

Radical Acceptance:

Purpose:
To fully accept reality as it is, without judgment or resistance, which reduces suffering (rumination often involves fighting with reality).

How to Do It:

Acknowledge the facts of the situation, even if painful.
Recognize that resisting reality doesn't change it, it only causes more suffering.
Turn your mind towards acceptance, making a deliberate choice to accept "what is."
Practice willingness, being open to acting effectively even when things are difficult.

Exercise:
"Half-Smile & Willing Hands":
When feeling resistant or unaccepting, gently turn up the corners of your mouth into a slight smile (half-smile).
Pair this with "Willing Hands", opening your hands with palms up, a gesture of openness to whatever is.
This can subtly shift your internal state towards acceptance.

Relevance to Rumination:
Highly effective when rumination is about past events that can't be changed, or unchangeable aspects of a current situation. It helps release the struggle and the "if only" loop.