The lifeworld of people who ruminate
dCOBISS.SI Digital Repository July 16, 2026 Aleš. autoth(SI-MaCOB)387237891 Oblak, Sara Rigler, Nika Kovačič et al.
Ruminating is described as an epistemic practice driven by a need to resolve uncertainty and create meaning, triggered by a collapse of commonsense understanding that leads to intellectualization of daily life and detachment from intuitive or embodied responses. Ruminative episodes involve feelings of paralysis, emptiness, and problematic relationships with knowledge. Rather than a maladaptive pattern of thinking, ruminating constitutes a complex lifeworld, suggesting a reconceptualization from a unified symptom toward a system of interrelated and extended altered experiences.