How To Cope with Overthinking💭🤨
We all know overthinking is a waste of time.“Stop overthinking” is something a lot of my friends and family have asked of me, as an avid over-thinker, I find it extremely difficult to JUST stop. But I understand how unhealthy it is to be at a standstill and your mind just running wild with thoughts. I feel that it’s hard to stop overthinking altogether if it’s a natural response for you—so here are some of my tips to get you to cope with it.
📝 Word Vomit—Don’t Hold it in
If brain naturally spirals into overthinking mode, take the chance to write them all down. If writing is not your thing, try typing. Anything at all to get it all out. For me because it’s so overwhelming, I quickly scribble onto my notebook whenever this happens.
👀 Self-soothe by Reading What You Wrote & Reply Yourself
Now you should be feeling less overwhelmed with everything out on paper. Read it and reply to what you wrote. Sounds weird, but this really helps. Reply whatever you have in your mind. This is a good way to self-soothe and be that best friend for yourself. Hype yourself up and realise that your overthinking thoughts are usually your fears and nerves more than anything concrete. For example, if I wrote “I feel overwhelmed and I feel like I’m going to fail”, I would then reply “Take it step by step, you haven’t tried, you don’t know the result yet”. Whatever your replies are, just aim to self-soothe. 📌 Additional tip: try to use different coloured pens for word vomitting and replying so that you can really see how your brain spirals and how illogical it gets sometimes.
👁️ Stay in the present, forget the past, & release the future
Our past experiences and the unknown of the future is what keeps us fearful and keeps us overthinking. Bring yourself back to the present. Know that the past is now over and you have the power to decide the future NOW. It is the NOW that is important. How your mind is now will determine how the future looks.
Let’s not let overthinking be a bad thing. All of your thoughts won’t go to waste if you reflect on them and use them. I see it as a chance to get to know myself on a deeper level: what are my inner fears? What are my inner thoughts? This is the time when it pops up so write them donw.
I hope this helps anyone out there who is “struggling” with overthinking—it is really not a bad thing! Have fun with it!
With Love,
Chara
This was originally posted on Lemon8.