Overthinking is the new trend but who cares

OVER

THINKING

If you wake up and your morning is all happy, relaxed and refreshed, this could be a sign that you are not overthinking enough.

Since this kind of relaxed morning could be because of no worries caused by overthinking.

Now, your life might be going well. Your job is somewhat stress-free because your boss is surprisingly calm, and there is no chaos at the workplace, just pure peace.

And then you have found the love of your life: either they are so understanding and compassionate, they might as well be a your therapist, or you have got friends, who don’t cancel plans last-minute proving that they are the best candidates for The World’s Best Travel Pal competition. These all are the enemies of overthinking.

So, what can you do to master overthinking and live stressed for no reason instead of how to stop overthinking? In this guide, I will help you combat happiness with the ultimate weapon of overthinking.

Since overthinking is a trend, you can check social media and watch many reels on overthinking, sadness, and feeling bad.

So what’s stopping you from experiencing the joy of overthinking?

That’s when these master tips come into play, revolutionizing your good habit of being present in the moment into the depth of overthinking.

Here we will talk about how we can successfully manage to kill the happiness and doom our present by constantly pondering over the past or the future with no regard for our mental health.

First, let me define what is overthinking.

We all know what this joyous term “overthinking” is because we all have been overthinking stuff for God knows how long about the incident that happened in the past, about the arguments where we could not come up applaud worthy comebacks, on saying something so stupid that we realized the next day or while returning home from office and on any other topic where we could have done something different.

So, this repetitive, energy-draining, unproductive, stress and anxiety-inducing pondering, where we tend to keep playing the scenarios in our head while looking at the blank space, is called overthinking.

We tend to overthink the past to know more by dissecting the event piece by piece and hoping to get an answer for what is bothering us and how we could have acted differently so that we could give ourselves a pat on the back for we have conquered the world.

Or, we overthink to predict the future like we’re trying to solve the world’s most confusing puzzle, analyzing every move to death, all in the name of ‘gaining control’ — which, of course, really just ends up with us feeling confident about absolutely nothing but our ability to stress ourselves out.

The continuous state of analyzing the past, present, or future events leads us to a loop of thoughts that lead us to worry, shame, and doubt our every decision, mental exhaustion, guilt, and rumination, and we end up terrified of starting anything new.

Above mentioned perks come with overthinking.

Now, what to you do in order to master overthinking and experiencing those perks?

Don’t postpone overthinking

You have to understand that the essence of overthinking lies in its uninterrupted flow. If you postpone it, you might forget about it, and then your mind will be much more relaxed, and you will feel better. Hell no!

But if you decide to think about this particular thought at a fixed time, it won’t hijack your mind at random moments as there will be no overrunning thoughts draining your mental energy. You can allot the time and duration for entertaining that thought.

So, decision is yours.

You can start overthinking whenever you can, wherever you can, in a meeting, in the office, while having lunch., while sitting on a toilet, even when you are at the most awesome party.

In this way, you will miss some really happening moments if you decide to overthink without any fixed time.

And let’s be real, that party was probably way more exciting than whatever scenario you were replaying in your head.

Don’t handle overthinking rationally

Ah! The rationality. That logical bastard capable of ruining all the fun with its pesky logic.

Once the rationality kicks in, it’s like your brain has an epiphany: “Dude! What happened, happened. And guess what? I can’t control that.”

Suddenly, your brain is free from the prison of endless analysis, and clarity emerges. You focus. You’re present. And — shocker — you’re not stressed.

No more stressed about that awkward thing you did in 2015 and worrying if you will make a mistake while giving a presentation in the office.

But if you kick rationality to the curb and let the rumination take over, well, buckle up. You’re about to be stuck in a loop of confusion, stress, and general misery and the passion of living right now will be out of the picture.

But, let’s be real, who wants to be rational anyway? In a world full of endless distractions and questionable life choices, it’s way more fun to keep that mental hamster wheel running… even if it leaves you puzzled, stressed, and wondering why you’re crying in the middle of a perfectly fine Tuesday.”

Be oblivious to your thoughts and triggers

When you stop being mindful, your thoughts get triggered, and the loop of repetitive thoughts begins. A single trigger can initiate the sweet and delicious memories of that incident that you would love to replay in your head for the nth time.

But when you become mindful of your thoughts, it helps you to detect the friendly thoughts that could lead to the postpartum of actions you performed in the past or a full-blown panic about the future.

Being mindful makes you attentive, so you can filter out thoughts that may drag you into the tempting yet exhausting wonderland of overthinking.

In short, mindfulness is like that one friend who keeps you safe from being sad — keeping you from posting that sad, cryptic status about how ‘no one understands you’ while you’re sitting in your living room eating ice cream at 2 a.m.

So, if you want to experience the sudden burst of overthinking, you can try being oblivious and let unchecked thoughts plan a heist of your time.

Sit idle in the hope that you can get something new out of it

Once you get in the habit of dissecting every tiny detail of your past or future, the focus becomes your long-distance cousin you rarely meet. Without him the occasion feels boring.

In the same way, without focus, the ongoing task feels like unending work.

That’s what overthinking does to your focus. It reduces the focus and keeps you in a mental maze, trapped by a never-ending stream of what-ifs and worst-case scenarios. It’s like a free, 24/7 horror show with no exit!

But when you move your body or do something where you distract yourself, your overworked brain gets a vacation. It’s like giving your brain a spa day, where it can finally take a break from the endless stress marathons.

If the activity is something you like and you spend some time doing it regularly, you tend to pay attention to the activity, and it helps you to break the pattern of overthinking.

Being productive is one of the side effects of taking a break from overthinking.

Now, if you really want to miss the excitement of overthinking, you could distract yourself with some good old-fashioned human interaction — talking to a friend, going for a walk and pretending you’re in a nature documentary, cooking something that might actually taste good, or watching a feel-good movie to bless your brain with some good times.

A healthy distraction to reduce the effects of overthinking on the brain.

Don’t accept

When you come to peace with your past and stop concentrating on the moments long gone, you miss the joy of overthinking.

So, keep continuing to obsessively replay every awkward moment and bad decision; you’re essentially signing up for a lifelong VIP pass to the “Stagnation Station.”

Welcome aboard! Forget about joy, focus, or moving forward — it’s time for shame, loss of confidence, sleepless nights, indecisiveness, occasional headaches, fatigue, guilt, mental exhaustion, and digestive issues.

Because who needs peace of mind? We need the overthinking effects on the body.

But when you accept things as they are, you allow yourself to move on, become kind to yourself, and stop seeking answers from past events.

So, you just put the magnifying glass down and focus on… I don’t know, maybe living?

When you learn to believe in your decisions, it helps you to take action. You do not waste too much time on the choices for the future. You defeat the monster of perfection.

You get out of the storm of reckless thoughts and emotions.

While overthinking is often branded as the villain in the story of your brain, it actually comes with a few hidden superpowers, like:

Turning you into a problem-solving ninja,
Sharpening your analytical skills like Sherlock,
Preparing you for every scenario from a surprise party to an alien invasion, giving you the ability to see all sides of a decision (even the ones that don’t exist),
Unlocking your inner Dr. Strange as you brainstorm every possible outcome,
Turning your attention to detail makes you connect the dots to see the entire picture.

So, yeah, it’s a bit much sometimes, but it might just save the day!

So, overcoming the addiction of overthinking would help you to live peacefully.