Recently I met someone and they said, "You seem like you overthink things." And then I actually talked about that comment to them, to my husband and to my sister and NOW I'm blogging about it (so do you think I overthink things? Hahahaha). To think about (something) too much or for too long - the dictionary definition. Yep, I do this. At first I was offended, but I stopped myself. Instead of getting angry about this or thinking well, that person doesn't even know me, that's a snap judgment and who are they to say, etc. I stopped and said, OK, this struck a chord in me, why? Truth is because I DO overthink things. A lot. In fact it is a behavior I want to change.
What do you do when you want to change a behavior? Well, first think of why you want to change it. In this case because overthinking messes with my life in many ways. It usually creates problems that aren't there or causes me to lose sleep or sometimes manifests anxiety and fear that is not at all helpful or necessary. It can put me in a bad mood or every once and a while cause conflict with others when truly, if I had just "let it go" and not continued to dwell or think about it, it would have just gone away.
If you're like me, maybe you've decided you want to be lighter and more free! You want to let go of the old baggage (and don't add to them)! You want to be able to enjoy your life and free yourself from negative self-talk and overthinking. Now that the choice is made, it's time to commit to some kind of action and DO it!
Just in a quick search I found 10 articles on how to stop overthinking!! Here are three of my favorites:
Don't think about what could go wrong, think about what could go right! So that's one thing we can do - every time you start to pose a negative question or ask what if x,y, z goes wrong...say, no, let's think positively and consider all the wonderful possibilities and how this could go so right!
Get physical - go for a walk, exercise, tire your body out and refocus your energy! This is a great way to redirect your thoughts. Not only will you feel better, but you you'll look better too! Win, win.
Don't vent - wait, what? Yep. Believe it or not (and this will be hard for me too) venting usually just leads to more stress and more overthinking. If you must talk about it - set a time limit - I'm gonna talk about this for 5 minutes and then be done and make sure you're doing it with a trusted friend or spouse that can handle telling you - hey! we aren't talking about that anymore, we've got a solution or we've discussed it from all angles, now let's let it go! And then...let it go!
And my own:
Pray - give it up to God! God can handle anything and is bigger than any problem! You don't have to think about it so much - God's got this!
Here are a few of the articles I read and found useful hints from all of them:
https://www.inc.com/lolly-daskal/10-simple-ways-you-can-stop-yourself-from-overthinking.html
https://tinybuddha.com/blog/10-ways-stop-overthinking-start-living/
https://www.realsimple.com/work-life/life-strategies/get-over-overthinking
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