Does a problem keep popping up in your mind? Do you spend hours dwelling on something and desperately try to find some meaning or solution.
You may also find yourself second-guessing every decision you make and imagine disastrous outcomes all day, every day. You may be overthinking. Excessive overthinking can be very harmful to your mental health. You are not alone in these thoughts; approximately 73% of adults admit to overthinking.
Everyone overthinks sometimes. However, some individual spends their day worrying about something of the past, present, and future.
When you worry about tomorrow, it’s not going to take away tomorrow’s troubles at all. Instead, what it does is takes away today’s peace.
The more you worry about something, the more you train your mind to think about it. Overthinking can become such a habit that you don’t even recognize when you’re doing it. You must start paying attention to the way you think so you can become aware of the problem.
It can be easy to get carried away with negative thoughts. Remember that your emotions will interfere with your ability to look at situations objectively. You need to take a step back and look at the evidence.
Becoming self-aware can go a long way – this can help you deal with overthinking in the long term.
So you may be thinking, how can I stop myself from overthinking? Here are some tips to help:
- Schedule in a worrying time – Incorporate a set amount of thinking time into your daily routine. During this set period, let yourself worry. When the time is up, move on to something else. When you start overthinking things outside of your scheduled time, remind yourself that you’ll need to wait till the next time you have thinking time. Allowing yourself to overthink over a short period stops these overthinking thoughts take over your life.
- Become self-aware of your thoughts – Being aware of your overthinking thoughts can be beneficial. Knowing the triggers to overthink can help you understand these thoughts and limit them.
- Learn mindfulness skills – It is impossible to rehash yesterday or worry about tomorrow when you’re living in the present. Mindfulness can help you become more aware of the here and now.
Stop allowing your overthinking to ruin your day!
