10 simple ways to stop overthinking
It is quite easy to pick off overthinking as a new habit.
We all know that life can be very challenging tiring and sometimes it can bring unexpected circumstances that we never imagined would happen to us. However, despite the challenges that we might face overthinking has never provided a solution it only leads to further hurt, pain, desperation, and total unhappiness.
As humans, we overthink at some point but when you make it a part of your life (I.e when it’s something you do every single day) this act is very detrimental to your health especially your mental health.
We should be familiar with the fact that certain mental problems can affect our body physically, research has shown that stress can also be causative of cancer. This shows that overthinking is in no way a friend it is in fact an enemy that needs to be avoided.
There are so many stories about different people who have engaged in the act of overthinking with an aim of finding an escape but instead they resulted to hurting themselves while trying to save themselves from the bondage of overthinking, they also begin to engage in acts like drugs and harmful practices trying to find relief but this could ultimately lead to their death.
Overthinking has led to the destruction of so many lives it is the “big bad” that must be overthrown. Of course, at some point in our lives, we subconsciously overthink due to the pressures of life that we encounter and that’s fine.
All we must do is just make sure that this doesn’t become an addiction of ours.
Why people overthink (causes of overthinking)
Stop overthinking: There are a lot of things that cause people to overthink, some could be physical while mostly are mainly mental issues.
- Past mistakes
There are a lot of people that keep thinking about the mistake they had made a long time ago that they can’t even move forward.
A lot of “what ifs” “how about”, “why did I act like that” ranks high among the many questions so many people ask themselves daily.
When you made mistakes in the past, you probably had no idea that what you were doing was wrong (I.e you probably had this perfect idea in your head that particular thing you were engaging in was the right thing).
Then you grew wiser and you realize that what you believed was right was wrong.
The best thing you can do at this point is to forgive yourself because holding yourself back with past mistakes that you had no idea where mistakes when you were doing them it’s not the right way forward.
Be sorry about your past mistake probably you hurt yourself or you hurt somebody else forgive yourself and try to reach out to those you hurt and apologize.
That is the right way to go about your past mistakes.
- Insecurity
Yeah!! this made the list
Insecurity has ruined a lot of life; it has contributed to so many menaces in society.
The feeling of “not being good enough” “not been enough” “not worth it” is a really messed up ideology about yourself.
If you cannot respect yourself or hold yourself in high regard or see yourself as someone with so many potentials, capabilities and self-worth, what makes you think people will hold you in that regard if you don’t?
If all you have for people is jealousy, envy, and the picture in your head that they have a perfect life and they are lucky while you are unlucky with an imperfect life, this is wrong.
- Unsure future
Worrying about the future doesn’t make the future any better, there is absolutely no need to kill yourself trying to picture a perfect or an imperfect picture.
All you have to do is set goals and strive to achieve them, you don’t have to keep picturing negative things that may never come true.
Instead of doing, if you’re good with picturing your future, why don’t you picture a future with something beautiful despite your present situation.
I know it can be hard to picture a beautiful life during darkness and pain but what’s the need of picturing more darkness and pain when you have already felt what darkness and pain feel like.
I think it’s only realistic that you trying to picture the opposite of what that pain is and trust me the opposite may be something that you might hold on to while you go to that particular stage of life.
If for any reason you want to picture the future make sure you picture beautiful things trying to keep your mind away from ugly and unhappy circumstances.
Visualizing positive pictures from your mind like the pictures of your tomorrow will fill your heart with happiness, overthinking will greatly be minimized and of course, depression will be eradicated.
Overthinking and mental health
When you overthink, you are making use of your mind (both conscious and subconscious). Psychologists have actually discovered that overthinking can lead to anxiety and depression.
Depression is a mental disorder that so many people in the world suffer from, it has negatively impacted the lives of a lot of persons in our society (young and old).
To avoid these mental disorders (depression and anxiety), it is advisable that you try to process your thoughts through self-reflection rather than overthinking.
Signs that show that you are overthinking
If you notice these signs or you are constantly doing these things, this could mean that you are an over-thinker.
That’s not a bad thing, it’s the first step to healing yourself. The fact that you have recognized that you overthink is your starting path to freedom.
As you have recognized that you probably overthink you will be willing to find out ways to quit overthinking in order to avoid hurting yourself.
- Always unsure about your success
If you are a person that regularly feels like you don’t deserve a particular promotion or you are not worth it and you always feel like you received what you had as a result of luck or someone favoring you this is just a sign of overthinking.
An overthinker never feels worthy of a position it’s either they aren’t sure it’s true or they aren’t sure they deserve a position, and this is really something that will get you thinking and thinking over and over again.
- Continually analyzing past mistakes
Everybody makes mistakes and the fact that you cannot understand this fact just shows that you are an over-thinker. There are so many publications about how to forgive yourself but despite this, a lot of people still don’t know how to do this because they feel they are quite unworthy of forgiveness.
This isn’t true everybody deserves to be forgiven and be happy so if you have hurt yourself, or if you have hurt someone and it’s quite disturbing for you and practically don’t know how to live your life right now when all you think is how you have hurt so many people in the past.
My advice to you at this point will be to let it go. I’m sure somebody has hurt you too, someone might have made you feel unworthy, but you let them go, you forgive them.
Take a minute to analyze all the past mistakes you’ve done and how you had no idea that you were hurting people, try to apologize to the people you hurt, and then learn to forgive yourself. that’s what you can do now.
- Always reliving moments of embarrassment
I’m quite sure that at certain points in our lives we all felt embarrassed about something we have done due to the way people laugh at us or the looks and stares that made us feel totally uncomfortable.
This is not quite a really funny experience; it is shameful and degrading, but I see no reason why you should keep reliving the moment in your head.
You didn’t like this moment why relieve it continually, it will only lead to overthinking which could, in turn, lead to depression.
- Overly Analytical
Quick question!! how do you feel when someone says a particular word to you probably in the morning and then you find yourself in the evening thinking about it?
What did this person actually mean? You just keep trying to make sense out of something someone just said.
You can’t leave your life always searching for the hidden meaning behind people’s words, of course, it’s good to be cautious of people and what they say but do you really have to search and scrutinize every single word you hear just to find out what exactly?
What are you looking for? are you looking for something that hurts? or you are probably looking for something to hold on to? avoid speaking with the person?
Whatever your reason, if you don’t like a person just avoid them or stay away from them as there is absolutely no need to sit and laugh with them while searching for hidden meaning to everything they say.
Effects of overthinking
The side effects of overthinking are not something anyone should wish upon themselves as they are not in any way beneficial to our physical and mental health.
- Mental illness
Overthinking can lead to certain mental illnesses Including anxiety and depression. When you are depressed, you isolate yourself from the general public because you want to keep to yourself thereby causing havoc to your mental state. Human beings are social animals, we are not created to be by ourselves rather to interact with one another. When you overthink you put your mind in a restless position.
- Stress
Overthinking can cause an increase in the production of the stress hormone cortisol which is harmful to the body when overly produced.
Being stressed can lead to a lack of sleep (I.e insomnia) and many other health challenges that will be problematic to you.
- Low self-confidence
When you constantly feel like you are not good enough or you are not worth it, your mind slowly accepts this reality, and this affects your confidence meter running it very low.
You can’t expect to believe less of yourself but have a very high level of confidence. A confident person believes in their worth and achievements.
An over-thinker who doesn’t believe in his/her worth will slowly suffer from a deteriorating confidence level.
Differences between problem-solving, self-reflection, and overthinking
There is absolutely nothing wrong with self-reflection or problem-solving. These two differ from overthinking in so many ways.
Self-reflection is an act of thinking about your life, what you have done, what you have achieved, how wrong or perhaps how right certain actions you have taken are and how to improve your life.
Problems solving on the other hand is just like budgeting or planning. It is the act of thinking about a problem or circumstance with the aim of finding a perfect solution that could resolve the problem.
Self-reflection and problem solving serve a completely different purpose from overthinking.
They both offer useful and beneficial results unlike overthinking which only leads to mental challenges and other health issues that are not beneficial to us.
It is better to engage in self-reflection when you want to correct the past mistake that you have done.
Think about why you did what you did, and how you can make it better instead of just overthinking and having panic thoughts like “why did I do it? what is going to happen now? how is the person feeling?
Engage more in self-reflection and problem solving as overthinking offers no beneficial result so don’t waste your time doing that rather engage yourself in more beneficial ways of resolving an issue that offers great results.
How to stop overthinking
- The First step will be to acknowledge that you are an over-thinker, when you can acknowledge these you can set out to look for possible solutions.
- Practice self-reflection and problem-solving and stayed off overthinking.
- When you feel like overthinking try to distract yourself with other things. You can read a book; you can watch a movie or just do anything that doesn’t involve thinking.
- Practice meditation helps you to silence your mind and focus your energy on peace.
- Learn to forgive yourself, apologize to those you have wrong, and give up attitudes that could cause a repeat of that mistake.
- Keep a journal where you list out your successes, your achievements, and all you did in order to achieve this.
This Should help you feel more deserving of the promotions and blessings you receive.
- Do good deeds to others, you have previously done negative things to people but now how about you do something good for someone.
- Practice self-love, you have to love yourself before you can love others, so it is important that you try to take care of yourself, engage in exercises and learn to love yourself more.
- Avoid over thinkers especially those who believe that their life will turn out to miserable and unhappy.
- If for any reason you want to think about your future make sure you project happiness, positivity love, and joy.
Conclusion
Stop overthinking, it never breeds a solution self-reflection and problem-solving does, replace your overthinking habits with reflection and problem-solving.
Have you ever experienced overthinking? Tell us how you overcame it in the comments section.
