Recently, I had a phone conversation with someone where it got very emotional.

They were voicing their perspective and applying a specific filter to a situation, and I was doing the same from my perspective. No one was right or wrong and it was difficult for the two of us to overcome our emotions and move forward.

I was upset for a few days, constantly rehashing the conversation in my head. That’s the funny thing about emotions. They’re emotional.

I tried all my usual techniques to let it go. Went for a long swim in the lake. Ate a huge bowl of Kawartha Dairy ice cream. Talked to my best friend. Told myself in the greater scheme of things, it was inconsequential. It seemed no matter what I did, I kept rehashing the conversation in my head.

I even looked back at some of my old blog posts like Let it go and Take the high road. Some experts say “distanced self-talk”, actually talking out loud and saying “this is not the end of the world”, the power of touch, and doing something awe-inspiring are all effective strategies for moving forward. My default is to write about it, which is also another proven technique.

I think what helped me the most funnily enough was the process of rehashing. It did help me get to the root of my feelings. After I had peeled back all the layers of my emotional onion, I felt unburdened. I could see things more clearly from both perspectives and was finally able to move on.

Rehashing conversations in my head is one of my worst traits. I’m ashamed to admit there are conversations that literally happened decades ago that I still rehash to this day.

It’s hard to get over hard feelings. I guess that’s why they call them hard. In the end, I just kept replaying Ted Lasso’s words in my head. “I forgive you” and “Be like a goldfish” (have a short memory and move on).

What do you do when you can’t stop rehashing conversations in your head? Leave a comment.