Overthinking-the art of creating problems that were not even there

Overthinking and creating a chain of never ending thoughts seems to be a common and unmanageable phenomenon for many people. While thinking and acting upon the decisions made is the desired activity, this act tends to become detrimental for many people as they get caught up between the cords of excessive thoughts. Overthinking and worrying can have quite a number of reinforcing properties which keeps the person bind to the process, such as overthinking can lead to superstitious avoidance of the catastrophe i.e. thinking too much about a problem might mean the problem won’t occur at all, or it can be used a coping mechanism; to prepare oneself for the upcoming stressors. However, no matter the reason that secures the person to overthinking, it can lead to persistent worry, excessive ruminations, insomnia, trouble concentrating, chronic anxiety or even depression in the long run.

So, it becomes substantial to get rid of this distressing act and indulge in healthy ways to think and act, to make informed decisions.

There are a few steps you can follow to be more in control of your thoughts and try to prevent it from spiraling in a vicious cycle of incessant thoughts.

Step 1- Identify the triggers

Often there is a situation or event that triggers the cycle of our thoughts and we get so caught up in our head that we tend to forget the initial thought that popped up in our minds. So the first step is to obviously be aware of our thoughts and situations that trigger those automatic thoughts. Being aware and identifying the triggering thoughts will set up the base for further steps and will prevent the burdening of our mind with overwhelming thoughts. Identifying the trigger becomes important because if we fail to do so, we will continue to add thoughts to our mind which will not be able to carry the burden and will eventually tumble. We can compare these thoughts to books being added in a bag. As each book is added to a bag, it becomes heavy and difficult to carry, so is with our mind, as each thought is added to our mind, our mind tends to becomes overburdened and is slowed resulting in anxiety and worry.

Now one may think as to how to become aware of our thoughts that seem to be extremely automatic in nature. One easy way is thought journaling, in which we journal our thoughts and emotions as they come in an hourly basis or whenever they arise. Reminding ourselves to jot down one’s thoughts immediately after a distressing event occurs, will help us to be aware of the situations that trigger a particular thought and how the cycle starts.

Step 2- Choose whether to engage with a thought or not

Once we have recognized and identified the triggering situation or thought, the next step is to decide whether we want to engage or simply entertain it or not. Our minds produce thousands and thousands of thoughts on a daily basis and if we will assume the responsibility to entertain each one of them, our minds will certainly cripple and fail to perform. So, the wise act becomes to choose which thoughts to entertain and which ones to let go. As difficult as it may sound, one way to do this is to imagine yourself as an observer of your thoughts and see them passing away as they come, without analyzing or getting in details, just observe the passing thoughts as flowing like a stream of river.

Often, these thoughts are chained and we do not seem to know how we started analyzing them and here comes the role of mindfulness, which means to bring one’s attention to the present moment, without judgment.

Once we recognize that our mind has started the cycle, we need to pull back our attention to the present moment, literally imagining ourselves as pulling it with force. And it may go again; we need to pull it back again and again. This exercise might sound difficult but as we practice it, we might notice that the force exerted to pull our attention becomes less and less.

Step 3- Distraction or disputation of thoughts

As overthinking is extremely troublesome, one temporary way to deal with it is distraction. Now, once we have recognized and pulled our attention to the present, we may engage in distraction activities that will reduce our ability to think about those thoughts. Our mind is a machine, it constantly needs something to do in order to work; as we try to take away its ability to think, we need to give it something else. Now, if we take thinking, we may give sensing activity to make it busy, we might engage it with our senses, for example –

Vision- try to watch something you like, your favorite video, your favorite movie or show, watching beautiful sceneries or simply taking a walk amidst the nature.

Hearing- try to listen to your favorite song or call your loved ones.

Smell- smell strong scents like coffee or your favorite perfume.

Touch- try to feel soft fabrics or hug your pillow, or your loved one.

Taste- treat yourself with your favorite comfort food.

Distraction of the brain may seem temporary but can work amazing for people who think too much and become immersed in their minds as once we distract our mind, we seems to forget the initial thought that came in first place.

Another way in this third step is disputation of our thoughts which means challenging our thoughts to see if they are worth thinking about. Often the thoughts that create a chain keep on forming on inadequate base or simply without enough evidence of its veracity. Thus, once we choose to engage in a particular thought, we need to test if it is actually true or it is just a thought our mind produced because every thought our mind produces may not be true.

For example, the chain of thought that concluded in ‘I am a complete failure’ needs to be tested against the reality. One way is to see and gather evidences for instances of failures and successes and see for ourselves how true is that statement.

Finally, to conclude, I can say that no matter how difficult the entire steps may sound, moving one step at a time, at our own pace will certainly bear fruits and we will finally be able to see how little progresses will add up to huge success as we will find ourselves to be in control of how we think, feel and act.