There are many people who regularly tend to overthink and over-analyze everything. Such people are just unstoppable in searching for patterns (existent and nonexistent) in explaining the “why” and the “how” in every single situation.
This way of over-analyzing things usually leads to a huge amount of stress, a terrible waste of time, and it creates an enchanted circle that keeps the brain on for 24/7.
If you are tired of constantly putting yourself in dilemmas, questioning everything and not being able to provide an easy solution to your problem, then you should consider putting this negative habit of yours under control. (1)
Before you start working on gaining control over your mind, you should know that you cannot force yourself into stopping overthinking and over-analyzing things or people. It doesn’t go like that. No amount of affirmations or blocking your brain shall ever achieve control over it.
This happens because you are an over-thinker and over-analyzer – these qualities are part of your character, of who you are. And if you try to pull this characteristic out of your system, the whole You shall collapse.
So the problem is not the characteristic that you possess, but the problem is the way you use this characteristic. Thus, you must start transform your overthinking and over-analyzing mind into a mind that knows its boundaries and when to stop.
This is why you should learn how to control your mind, not to step over the thin line of balance and learn to use this talent of thinking in a constructive way. And these 5 tips can help you do just that.
Don’t force yourself to stop thinking – as mentioned before that is who you are. You are a thinker, an obsessive one sometimes, but a thinker. This means that you work your way out in the world by thinking things through, which is a beautiful and very smart way of living.
Now, the problem begins when you start to overthink and over-analyze things and you get caught into your own web of thoughts which sometimes are self-produced and unreal and then it seems like you can’t find the way out!
The easy way out is to base your thinking on evidence – real, factual evidence. This way you can filter out any unnecessary thoughts that you may have produced on the way. Leaving emotion out of this can sometimes be very beneficial.
Know where the thin line is – meaning you must know yourself enough so you can sense when you start jumping over the line. The key here is to know your Self. So, you must figure out why you react in such way, and on what sort of things you start overthinking (is it on everything or just when something specific happens?).
And if you do succeed to narrow these things down, you can just stay out of such situations that you know could provoke stressful and sleepless nights once again.
Take deep breath and stop thinking –the second you recognize that you have started over-analyzing things just take a deep breath, count to ten and stop thinking for some time.
What happens is that in that very moment that you actually start breathing, you bring some fresh air into your brain cells that help ease the tension and relaxes the muscles which in turn give the Self time quickly to put that urging thought aside.
When the counting is over don’t let that same thought contaminate the fresh air that you’ve just breathed in. So, continue for another moment or two to concentrate on the breathing, not the thinking. (2)
Quickly find something else to preoccupy yourself with – the subject of this substitution for your attention can be a book, a movie, your kids or whatever that asks certain amount of concentration from you.
This is rearranging of your focus in moments of tension and it lasts until you can successfully calm yourself and feel that all the tension is lifted away. Only then you can go back to your initial thought, which now is not so urging.
Make positive use of your talent to overthink things – as we said before overthinking can be very stressful, but on the other hand this is an extraordinary gift. If appropriately channeled, it can become a very useful tool for gathering deep Wisdom that your mind and your Soul need so you can live a happy and fulfilling life. (3)
So don’t stop thinking – it is your talent, but stop overthinking and over-analyzing everything, because sometimes it is just a waste of time, and you shouldn’t use your talent on things that stresses you, but on things that make you happy.
