Overthinking is common when we feel overwhelmed, out of control, stressed, anxious, or fearful. But there are some steps you can take to overcome overthinking and keep it at bay.
1. Becoming Aware of the Where’s and Why’s of Your Overthinking
The first step to overcome overthinking involves understanding where our overthinking comes from. It’s not something that just happens. It’s important to know where it comes from and why it happens. Our core beliefs drive our thoughts and behaviors, and those beliefs are often set in childhood. Taking a look at the beliefs that drive us is an important step to understanding our tendency to overthink. Why we overthink is often related to feeling out of control. We tend to overthink in an effort to gain control.
2. Understanding the Impact of Your Overthinking
The second step is to understand the impact our overthinking has on us. We want to take a look at not only the thoughts, but the thought patterns, how it affects our bodies, our feelings, and our behaviors. We also want to know the impact it has in our lives related to the choices we make about relationships, jobs, finances, health, etc. Lastly, we want to take a look at what we gain from overthinking.
3. Recognizing Thought Patterns Behind Your Overthinking
The third step involves diving into the thought patterns that drive us and ways to shift those patterns. There are common patterns of thinking that overthinkers have, such as:
- Black and White: thinking in terms of right or wrong, good or bad, with nothing in between
- Maximizing and Minimizing: focusing on the negative to an exponentially greater degree than the positive
4. Learning New Skills to Overcome Overthinking
The fourth step involves re-connecting with the non-thinking parts of ourselves. If overthinkers were a cartoon, they’d have a huge head and little or no body. Overthinkers tend to be very disconnected from their bodies, which give us information all the time about how we are feeling. The task here is to re-connect with our bodies and give our brains a break. This can be done using several strategies, including breathing techniques, grounding skills, and mindfulness.
5. Planning for the Future
Once you identify where your overthinking comes from, how you experience it, and ways to overcome it, it’s time to set a plan in motion. Overcoming overthinking isn’t just a one-time event. It’s a process that takes continuous monitoring. We want to use our knowledge and skills to both prevent overthinking and to handle it when it comes.
To learn more about Overthinking, check out these other articles: 3 Signs You’re an Overthinker, 3 Benefits of Overthinking, and 3 Costs of Overthinking.
If you’re a woman in Arizona looking for support in overcoming overthinking, I invite you to book a consult to discuss how individual or group therapy could help.
