This research improvises a model highlighting how tourists’ ruminative thinking from travel SNSs could be mitigated through a four-component approach rooted in self-regulation theory and the goal progress theory of rumination. Using a survey design, the model posits the need to belong as a motivational factor that drives travel SNS engagement and travel impulsion through the meditational monitoring processes of forgiveness and trust in SNSs. Two willpower factors–perceived secondary control and perceived enjoyment–were examined. This inquiry adds to the literature by building a synthesis between the two theories to showcase how tourists regulate themselves after traumatic events in cyberspace, and how this is juxtaposed with rumination through the lens of goal setting. The proposed model helps to explain the rumination of negative instances in social media and how tourists negotiate their conduct.