Really? Can anyone tell me if it is really possible to stop overthinking?
For now, just forget about how to stop overthinking. Instead of that, let’s find out why people overthink. Like, seriously, I want an answer.
There are times when we can't control our thoughts. With them, we also swing from one point to another and sometimes have a 360-degree roller coaster ride. And it's not funny at all.
We think about the things that never happened or are probably never going to happen. Still, we think of the worst-case scenarios.
You are not alone in this. Sometimes I also master this art of overthinking and start questioning every existence on this planet.
But when I think from the perspective of a real overthinker, I am like how these people actually tackle such situations.
I always believe in finding the root cause of everything. Similarly, if you want to stop overthinking, you should understand the real cause of it. Otherwise, you couldn’t put a full stop on it.
There could be a number of reasons behind why we overthink. This time, not from my perspective. Let’s try to unfold them from the perspective of a real overthinker.
Why people overthink?
Want a perfect solution
I believe that there is nothing in this world that has a perfect answer or solution. While we can try to be perfect. But with overthinkers, they just want a perfect solution. They think in every way and try to come up with a perfect solution or perfect answer and mostly end up with nothing.
Don’t accept reality
I saw many people who have a hard time accepting reality. Either they start manifesting or just go into their own world (in Gen Z slang, delulu). However, there are situations when we do want to escape reality, but with overthinkers, they mostly don’t live in the present moment. They think above and beyond, and just forget to live in the moment and accept reality.
Past mistakes
Overthinkers have one habit, which is connecting the present to the past and thinking whether they will repeat the same mistakes they made in the past. To some extent, that is fine, but not always.
Stress, Anxiety
Stress and anxiety are both counterattackers. Stress brings anxiety and anxiety brings stress. As per the study, most of the overthinkers take stress easily and anxiety follows it like an obedient child.
For instance, if someone says to them You don’t care, OMG, they will be like, "What did I do?" and they will think about those words for 24 hours, unless they get clarity on what exactly they have done.
Comfort
Many overthinkers don’t like to get out of their comfort zone. They fear getting out of their comfort zone. It could be anything, a change in their daily routine, leaving a city, leaving a company, among others.
Well, everyone wants comfort in their lives, but here we are talking about overthinkers. For them, a little change in their lifestyle can cause trauma.
Now, we talked a lot about why people overthink; now it’s time to look at the other side of the coin. How can we overcome it?
How to overcome/stop overthinking?
Write down your thoughts
How many thoughts do you get on a daily basis? I’m pretty sure that you never counted that. Start writing them. It's not like journaling.
In the first week, write every thought which comes to your mind. Do not need to set time. Whenever a thought comes, just write it down.
From the second week, set a time when you write down those thoughts. Suppose you are working on X task and some random thought pops up. Just tell yourself that you are going to write it later.
By just doing this simple exercise, you’ll get to know how useless and senseless the thoughts you get are.
I’m not saying that every thought is useless. But by doing this exercise, you could surely differentiate between good and bad thoughts.
Know not every thought needs your attention
By incorporating the above exercise in your daily life, you’ll understand that not every thought needs your attention. Some thoughts are just random and let them be random. You don’t have to worry about every single thought that comes to your mind.
Have hobbies
This is one of the best ways to keep your mind engaged. Have any hobbies. If you don’t have anything now, just build one. It could be anything: drawing, cooking, cleaning, walking, writing, reading. Simply anything. Develop one. It would help you overcome overthinking.
I’m telling this from my personal experience. Whenever I overthink, I start reading, writing anything I want, cleaning or anything else I want to do. This keeps my mind engaged and prevents it from negative thoughts.
Follow mindfulness
You might have come across the term “mindfulness”. But do you practice this?
See, it seems to be easy, but it is not. Like many of us, we have a habit of doing multiple things together. For instance, you are writing on any topic, and along with this, you are checking your inboxes. This won’t be called mindfulness.
Mindfulness is something when you put all your heart and brain into one task. Not only this, but you enjoy doing that. Suppose you are cooking, so just cook. Don’t watch your favourite series at that time.
You can’t control everything
We call ourselves humans, but if we see ourselves from a different perspective, we are just a dust particle on this planet and have a brief time. So make use of the time you have.
So, from that, do you really think you have to overthink this much? You can’t control rain, you can’t control others' thinking, you can’t control others’ behaviours, so stop trying to control everything.
There are many things in this world that are beyond our imagination. So rather than panicking about every small thing. Just accept reality and think about the things that you can control.
My thoughts
As I said earlier, at certain points in life, everyone overthinks and that’s okay. But when you frequently start overthinking, it's not okay. You know you are doing it over and you have to stop it.
Try following the exercises that I’ve mentioned in this blog. If it doesn’t help, take professional help. There is no shame in it. You know what’s right for you.
