You are an overthinker.
We know, it’s kind of makes you sad. But the good news is, it’s not your fault.
Overthinking is a learned practice in our youth. We start out with a lot of questions and no one else to answer them, so we turn to our imaginations to fill in the blanks. The latter continues into our adult life, where we keep using our imaginations to make sense of the world, but at one stage along that path, we start to mistake imagination for reality.
That is what brings about overthinking: confusion between what is real and what is not real. And so it comes to pass when our minds take something simple—like, say, to sit down and take off your shoes—and turn it into a tortuous puzzle that needs solving: “Should I do it now, or later? If now, then later, maybe. But if then, then now, most probably.” Oh, these thoughts can get running until you’re stuck in an infinite loop of indecision and self-doubt; it seems impossible to get out of there.
One gets caught up in a never-ending cycle of self-analysis and worrying, but this kind of thinking does not allow for making decisions; it just keeps us in one place. It may seem a hyperbolic condemnation of overthinking, but in the end, it really isn’t—it only ends up giving us more time to talk ourselves out of making any decision at all.
What do you instead do? In the following, you can pacify your mind and then try to make important decisions in life.
1) Write down what’s making you anxious
The very first thing I do when I have so much on my plate and I feel the gush of anxiety flooding in is to put it down on paper. For example, “I’m worried about [X], because [Y].” This exercise slows me down so that I can really think through what’s bothering me and how I’m feeling about it.
Then, with all my thoughts written down, I looked over them a little more objectively than when they were just racing around in my head.
2) Take a deep breath—and keep breathing
You can start bringing yourself back to center in any situation with the simple act of breathing. Instead of really starting to spin off, touch into your breath. Try to feel nothing but the sensations of the air entering your body and leaving your body again. This can be done silently or one can count breaths (one in, two out, three in, four out).
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3) Just accept the reason for overthinking
“When you’re overthinking, it’s really hard to remember you’re not just making stuff up in your head.”. This is the reason you feel like you’re making things up. Your brain is desperately struggling to make sense of what is happening. The brain makes sense of the world by taking in information from it, and at times the information might not be adequate.
So, with that happening, your brain starts asking questions about the situation, and it’s trying to come up with answers, even if those answers aren’t right.
But sometimes these are the right answers!
Sometimes, there’s a reason for something to happen, and we don’t understand, see or know. If you can accept that (I am pretty sure you accept many things that you cannot change), then how is it that you cannot accept that very thing which is driving you to overthink?.
Let go of these things and calm your mind in order to take the right decision.
4) Patience is a good quality to have, and it can help you in any situation you’re in
One may be carried away by the hype of the moment, but without a cool overview of the situation, he tends to make many of the moves that may carry him over, so to speak, and may actually not help him win the game by the end of the day. It makes you feel good for the moment, but someday, it could cost one a fortune, and then where would he be?
That’s the reason; I always make sure to take the time when considering my next step. No thing is as important as making the right decision about anything, even if I have to let go of a temporary gain and also suffer from long-term success.
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5) Nothing is permanent
The belief that nothing is permanent and, at one point in life, everything will have to change is a key toward moving ahead in life. It means if you are now on the down path of things not working out, there is no need to panic, for sooner or later, it will turn around whether you want it to or not. Now, once you realize this, I believe that it should be quite easier to make decisions, involving your future, because it gives you that sense of control over what happens next, instead of feeling like you’ve got no choice but to wait it out until things turn around on their own terms.