How to stop overthinking

Of course, by “thinking too much” you should understand not thinking about a possible solution to an important issue or plot of a book you just read, but ordinary everyday thoughts that eat up your mood and ruin your relationship with others. They draw all mental attention onto themselves - we scroll them over and over in our heads over and over again. “What should be done in that case with the boss?” “Will they understand my words correctly, because one could say less ambiguously. For example…". “What did he mean? Is this a veiled insult? ”

Such thoughts do not just constantly arise - we often focus on them. This constant scrolling only harms and leads to stress. In English, there is the term “overthinking”, which can be translated as “winding up”, “over-thinking”, “thinking too much”. The American Psychological Association gives him the following definition: "a repeating, drawn-out thought about yourself, your problems and your experience." This condition manifests itself in many ways: painful thinking, anxiety, self-flagellation, the expectation of negative results, irritability. In a word, there are many reasons to seriously tackle this problem. Here are ten ways you can do this.

1. learn to be aware.

This is the first and best advice. If you are conscious, you will most likely notice your thoughts and be able to stop scrolling through them. After all, the biggest danger is that we are so immersed in them that we no longer pay attention to anything.

Do not try to completely clear your thoughts - it still will not succeed. Just watch, let them pass. Without ratings, development, pondering alternatives.

2. Physically interrupt the process

Here, by the way, there will be rubber bracelets. This simple technique works. As soon as you notice that you are hung up, immediately pull out the elastic band and slap yourself on the wrist with such a bracelet. At the same time, you can say out loud or silently “Stop!”. This is a simple technique that allows you to train mindfulness and notice your thoughts.

3. Practice replacing thoughts

We understand that when it comes to stopping thinking too much, it means bad thoughts. Therefore, a great way would be to replace the negative thought with positive.

For example, you made a mistake at work, your manager spoke unflatteringly about it. Instead of tragic thoughts about a possible dismissal, think that mistakes are part of the job, they all happen, in general, you and the boss have normal relations. It’s bad if you still get fired tomorrow, but at least you won’t torment yourself before that.

Your new thought may even be silly and not related to reality. It does not matter. The main thing is that it interrupts the circulation of negative thoughts.

4. Create a reality frame

Or at least find out the real state of things. It happens that the same trouble happens to us over one day, and we begin to think that there is some pattern in this. But this is nothing more than a mere coincidence. Logic, critical thinking, statistics are important. Evaluate facts, not follow your perception. It, even if partly true, is only partly.

5. Call a friend

A person thinks too much when he does not leave the house for days. It should be at least a little to dispel thoughts in order. Often you just need a different point of view. It is necessary to go off the rails of the same thought.

A friend can give advice or just laugh and call you paranoid. Both that and another helps.

6. Keep busy

Why does this work? If you worry and think too much, then you are either in the past or in the future. Employment helps to be in the present. And in the present, anxiety is practically non-existent.

7. Learn to meditate

We don’t tell you to “meditate”, because this still needs to be learned, because everything is not so simple. Also, most people, as a rule, give up meditation after a week of practice. To learn this, you need a lot of patience. It is also brought up through meditation, therefore a vicious circle is obtained.

If you learn to meditate, this alone will allow you to get rid of thoughts in seconds. It may take six months or more, but it's worth it.

8. Go in for sports

Sport is universal advice. It is unlikely that you will find at least one person in the world who would exclaim: “How I regret that I spent 20 years of my life playing sports! God, how stupid and inexperienced I was! ”

Sport does not allow you to think a lot about the past and future, because it requires a stay in the present. He teaches you how to deal with stress and depression.

9. Make a decision

Very often we think too much because we can’t make a decision. What color to choose a phone - white or black? In this case, there is no bad option, just make a decision. But sometimes it’s hard because it seems to us that we will lose something if we make a choice. Therefore, we are scared. But one has to weigh the pros and cons and decide, one does not need to think endlessly.