A Complete Guide To Overthinking

Do you feel like your mind is constantly racing? 

Is it like a train running through a million thoughts, instead of staying grounded on the platform, running and going somewhere else? 

When unwanted thoughts pile up in your mind, you might end up cycling through the same unnecessary mental data.

Overthinking, scientifically termed as rumination, means thinking too much about the problems. The moment an unwanted thoughts pop up in your mind, it drifts you away from the task you are doing. These little voices in your head circle in a loop and drain your precious mental energy.

A constant chatter in your mind is a downward spiral, the more you feed it the more it demand. Your mind is habituated to memorize the record of your past experience that has significant influence on your current behavior, thoughts and emotions. It is hard for your mind to shut off at the given moment, and you feel exhausted with loss of enthusiasm.

Why overthinking happens

Our environment has a significant impact on our thought process. Our upbringing, workplace environment and people around us largely affect the way we think.

The environment in which mistakes are punished, success is rewarded and failure is looked as a sign of weakness makes a person overly cautious and watchful of everything they do. This makes the person to over analyze the situation that ultimately affects decision making process and possible outcomes. Stigma of failure stick with us for much longer period crating negativity in every aspect of life.

Traumatic past events, uncertain future, excessive worry and taking things personally are some of the important causes of overthinking.

As human species, we all want to create a perfect world with bright future and excellent outcomes without even realizing that most part of our life is not under our control. 

When our ideologies are different from the social cohort , our mind makes a sharp noise. That is when it becomes so easy to lose ourselves amidst other’s voices.

Presentation of overthinking 

Let’s get aware about signs indicating that you are overthinking.

Memorizing past humiliating or embarrassing moment, constantly reminding about past mistakes and regretting often, holding onto traumatic life experiences, old insult and failures, criticizing and blaming self or others for past mistakes, failures and loss, excessive worries about a future, expecting the worst outcomes for given situation, concern about things that are not in control, habitual to take things personally when they aren’t so important, trying to extract the hidden meaning in things people said or events that happened, trying to guess what is on someone’s mind, excessive thinking about other people behavior towards yourself , finding yourself stuck in the spiral of thoughts,constantly obsess about the problem instead of solution, feeling decision fatigue even though not making too many decisions, desire to find a perfect solution, solving problems in the head instead of putting them to action, higher chances of distraction and confusionand constant feeling of helplessness are noticeable signs of overthinking.

Impact of overthinking

Overthinking can affect every aspect of life from family to profession areas in different ways.

Imaginary problems lead to insecurities that are hard to overcome. Excessive worries create fear of uncertainty where everything becomes unclear. An individual can get lost in vague fear and found himself/herself in mentally vulnerable situation.

Consumption of precious mental energy prevents the right action, create gaps in a thought process, halt your progress and even hamper decision making. When you lived too much in your mind, it is hard to make choices.

Associated distraction could interfere with daily routine and disturb relationships with family, friends and co-workers. Constant worry, fear and insecurities keep an individual away from everyday enjoyment.  A sense of stagnation and lack of purpose causes a lot of dissatisfaction. This enhances a chance of relying on drugs and alcohol. However, such dependency ultimately gets converted into substance abuse.

Associated anxiety and depression trigger a host of health problems such as inability to sleep, fatigue, irritability, muscle stiffness, headache and dizziness.

Dealing with overthinking

Nothing is more terrifying than battling with your own thoughts every single day. Therefore, dealing with overthinking is immensely necessary to prevent long term psychological and health consequences.

Taking charge of your own thought is the first towards dealing with overthinking. Identifying an origin of thoughts and addressing the underlying root cause is the first step to control your thought process. Consciously noticing your thoughts and adopting a constructive thought pattern can keep yourself away from overthinking behavior. Teach your mind various ways to foster right thinking. 

Life is always happening now, but distracted by racing thoughts you fail to notice. Being lost in a future has no realities of its own because what may happen tomorrow exist only as an active imagination of your mind. Remember your thoughts are not always facts. 

Similarly, it is unnecessary to entertain your past when you have already moved on. Letting go off the past is always a better solution. 

Understand that whatever you have is just your present moment. Instead of focusing on where you was headed, and where you would go, simply focus on what needed to get done at the present moment. Your present is most important as it will be going to determine your future. 

Many times things don’t go your way and this is the harsh reality of life. At this stage, getting engaged in negative thoughts is obvious. 

When one thing don’t go as you planned doesn’t mean you have reach to dead end. This might be an indication of other opportunities that you should explore. Don’t drain your mental energy by just worrying on things not in your control. Rather focus your mindset on what is within your control. You can’t control the external forces that impact your life, but you can control how you perceive and react to them.

Remember that you don’t have to prove yourself to everyone coming in your life. Every person is different by nature and therefore, there are differences in opinions and viewpoints. Different people may draw different conclusions for same situation. Opinions can vary depending on person’s perspective, understanding, belief system, desires and feelings. 

For the given situation, you may be right from your viewpoint but that doesn’t mean another person is wrong. So, if you are an individual who is habitual to take things personally or interested to find hidden meaning in conversation, it’s time to give your thought process a stop. 

Everything needs recharging even your mental health too. A disturb mind is as devastating and detrimental as broken bone. Mental resilience is like intelligence, some people are born naturally resilient but everyone can learn. 

You can’t control anything in this world except your state of mind. Your mind is the most priceless possession. It is powerful tool and the only person who can use it wisely is yourself. So, learn the ways to improve your mental wellbeing.

It’s normal to think from time to time. Thinking is part of human nature, especially while making decisions or evaluating situations. But there is a difference between thinking and thinking too much. 

Your thinking pattern makes you unique among all species, but at the same time it makes you confused too. Your mind finds it difficult to reconcile with emotions and instincts with adequate reasoning. This creates confusion in human mind with rumination of same thing.

It is solely your responsibility to remove the unhealthy baggage from within. Your mindset is a key for your better life, so nurture it well.

Disclaimer : The purpose of this blog is to create emotional health awareness. This information is not a replacement for medical treatment or counseling therapy.