Overthinking is one of the most draining mental ruts that one can find themselves in. It is draining because it feels as if you have lost control of your mind. Your mind will run rampant entertaining the same tired thoughts that you wish to extinguish. If left unchecked, overthinking can lead to unnecessary stress and can ultimately diminish the quality of your life in a major way.

I have come up with 6 effective strategies that you can start implementing as soon as you sense that you are overthinking.

6. Focus on what’s in your power and disregard what is not

What often stresses us out the most are things that are not within our power. If you want peace of mind, you must always wage war against the present. Always look for things that you can influence that are within your locus of control.

Instead of stressing out the day before an exam and overthinking about various outcomes, focus on what you can do in the moment. A more fruitful exercise will be to study to the best of your ability, playing the cards that you are dealt as well as you can.

You have a job interview tomorrow and you keep overthinking about the outcome – a waste of time. Spend your time instead on practising common interview questions, perfecting your elevator pitch, and getting your confidence and charisma on point. These are the things that you do have control over, these are the things that are within your domain.

A wedding is coming up in two weeks and you ordered some shoes on Amazon, but you’re afraid that they won’t come in time. Instead of worrying about things outside of your control, start planning for the contingency. Arrange for a plan B – the second pair of shoes – just in case. Always look for things that you can attack in the present moment!

5. Put things into perspective

It’s not the end of the world, and you are still alive, so what are you worrying about? There have been countless situations in the past that had you hamstrung, but you overcame them, didn’t you? You have faced adversity before, and you are still here!

The stoic philosopher Seneca once said,

“We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality.”

Our minds have a tendency of creating worst-case scenarios. The mind, when left unchecked, will entertain many Armageddons that almost never flourish.

When you notice yourself overthinking, just remember all the other times in your life when you:

​Went for your first job interview.

​Asked your crush out on a date.

​Moved cities.

Look into your memory bank for countless examples of triumph.

4. Be willing to forgive yourself if shit hits the fan

It is the tendency of man to tie his sense of self to his accomplishments. That is to say, a man who has not accomplished much sees himself as being fundamentally flawed. Let’s break away from this mode of thinking. Dissociate your sense of ego from your external worldly results. A failure in the world is not a failure of self, yet a failure of strategy. This insight is liberating.

Allow yourself to fail, because in life shit will hit the fan. We overthink because we want so desperately to succeed. We desperately seek validation to reinforce our sense of worth. Fuck that! Always try to win while simultaneously being perfectly fine with failure.

When you have forgiven yourself prior to any failure happening, you no longer fear anything; once you stop fearing failure, you can stop overthinking.

3.Go into your body and become more mindful

Energy cannot be created nor destroyed. It can only be exchanged or transformed. When we overthink, there is a dense energy stuck in our mind as our brain fires up like a nuclear reactor. Disperse this energy by going into your body. You can’t focus on two things at once, so this is an effective way to get out of your head.

Some things you can do:

Feel your feet and the surface below them, feelingthe rocks and every crevice in the ground.

Feel your hands, bringingattention to every single finger one at a time.

Feel your calf muscles as you work, noticinghow they contract with each step.

Enjoy the breeze on your back.

Embrace the air as it enters your lungs and followits passage.

This is called being mindful, and it is amazing for stress relief and tackling overthinking.

2.Change your environment to prime different emotions

In the field of influential psychology, there is a term called ‘priming’. It is defined as,

“The implicit memory effect in which exposure to a stimulus influences response to a later stimulus”. Lots of interesting research has gone into priming; for instance, if I were to flash the colour yellow and then later ask you to give me the name of a fruit, you would be more likely to suggest a banana.

If you have recently seen or heard the word ‘eat’, you are more likely to fill in so_p as ‘soup’ rather than ‘soap’ within a few minutes’ time.

Priming has been used by marketers for years to influence us into buying because it’s incredibly powerful.

We can prime ourselves through changing the stimulus that we are exposed to. Sometimes our environment – through its arrangement of objects – can evoke implicit meaning, and in turn, prime us into mental states. A messy room can make us feel lazy, while a clean and orderly room can inspire confidence and productivity.

Perhaps the environment in which you find yourself is leading to your overthinking…Try a change of scenery! If you work in an office, go to the beach! Mix it up to give your brain some fresh stimulus.

1.Get Active

One of the best ways to get rid of stress and overthinking is through exercise. Pick your poison: running, weight training, yoga, swimming; as long as you are getting active, you are doing well.

Exercising can provide a natural high through the rush of endorphins (feel-good chemicals) that your body releases upon completion.

Let’s not even get into the health benefits or we will be here all day. Sometimes when you are overthinking, the best thing that you can do is get your ass to the gym!