Are you pulling your hair out thinking about something which you shouldn’t have done or do you have any regrets about something which has sucked in all your sleep and left you with your eyes wide open at night?
If your answer is “yes” then must know that it is no good. Thinking is okay but overthinking is harmful not just to your mind but the body as well.
You surround yourself with too much of negativity when you overthink as you are not able to think clearly and the level of your stress drastically increases. This leads you to not being able to react or act in particular situation. You are just left wondering what to do.
Before getting into why you should not overthink, it is important for you to know when it is actually happening to you.
Whenever you find yourself thinking about something again and again, doubting your previous judgment on something, or feel regret of something that has happened in the past, then it should be very clear to you that you are not just actually thinking, but you are overthinking.
When you know you are overthinking, then comes the time to stop it from affecting you anymore by following the following points.
#1 Challenge your thoughts
Stop thinking about a particular subject on a continuous basis. Instead, ask yourself if thinking over such an issue worth your time and energy? Is it going to help you in any way? Will it matter to me tomorrow and after few weeks, months or years? If your inner-self says “no”, then why bother to waste your precious time on something so useless like overthinking? In contrast, you can make use of your time by doing something which is important in your life.
#2 Look for positive than negative
Instead of thinking of what could go wrong, you should think of what could go right. Yes! By doing this, you can change your thought process and trick your mind into thinking about the positive things that can happen in your life.
#3 Focus on the present
If you are thinking about what would happen tomorrow or why did something happen in the past, then quit thinking about it immediately. You must bear this important fact in mind that what has happened in the past has gone. Likewise, what is going to happen in the future is not known. So, stop thinking about your past and future and simply focus on the present.
#4 Distract yourself
One of the best things to stop overthinking and free your mind of negative thoughts, you can indulge yourself in some other work. For instance, play with someone, be it a small kid or a grown up. Go for shopping or hang out with friends, learn something new like playing a new musical instrument, dancing, and there are many more other things which you can easily do. Keeping yourself busy with other things will help you a lot and ease your mind to a great extent.
#5 Watch out for your social circle
Your friends or colleagues also play a very important part in making you feel good. It means that you should not be with someone who always overthinks everything. If you stay close to such people then it would become very difficult for you to not overthink like they do. So, quit spending much of your time with these people and be with those who are positive-minded and help you to come out of such situation rather pushing you into it.
#6 Stop getting afraid of everything
There are many people who are frustrated with thinking about something which is not even related to their present and comes out of nowhere. For instance, what will happen if I or somebody I care about go through an accident or worse die? It really is very sad to think about and you don’t actually want to think about it but it automatically comes to your mind.
So, what can you do now which stops this kind of overthinking? Well! All you got to do is tell yourself that what worse can happen and prepare yourself for that so that your mind stops thinking about it and troubling you with such upsetting thoughts.
#7 Tell yourself not everything is under your control
Do you really think that thinking about something over and over again will do any good to you? Not at all! Instead, it will ruin your ability to think straight and leave you in the cycle of overthinking. Things will happen when they should happen. You cannot change it or hold it for long. So, just wait for the moment and react when the time comes.
Keep the point in mind that you cannot control everything that happens around you. So, stop trying to control each and everything in your life.
#8 Be grateful for what you have
You might regret some things that have happened in your life but if that so-called ‘regret’ takes a toll on your mind, then it is problematic and need to be out of the way.
First of all, you need to understand that by regretting and over thinking those periods of your life will not improve anything or change anything. It has gone far away in the past and regretting about something which does not exist at present or matter anymore is simply waste of your valuable time and energy. You don’t have a time machine to go back in the past and right your wrongs. So, why stress yourself by thinking about those things again and again?
What you can do to overcome such thoughts is to feel grateful for what you have at present instead of thinking about what you regret.
It is totally up to you if you want to spend your life on overthinking everything or focus on your present and think positive about everything around you. This might take some time to be good at but consequently one day, you will be free of such futile thoughts and live peacefully in the future.
Leave a Reply