Do You Wonder…

How to stop overthinking everything things for hours until your brain hurts?

Are major life decisions becoming a source of stress?

Do you end up without a solution for your dilemmas after days of mulling over them?

Are you suffering from a lack of comfort or peace because you can not make up your mind?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you must read on… Here is a list of ten tips to help you simplify your life and get over your habit of overthinking everything.

1. Keep learning: It’s easy to browse online or reach out to books to appease your mind. There is an endless number of inspirational people with interesting stories to share, from which you can absorb new information. Learn how persistent and decisive people proceed in making quick decisions, then apply their strategies to solve your life challenges.

2. Distract your mind: We think too hard about something when we have too much time to think about it. To prevent this, don’t fixate on a problem or situation. Do something else like taking a walk, cooking, exercising or even listening to music. Whatever it takes to shift your focus away from it. Your subconscious will still be processing solutions, so re-visit your problem after doing something else, make a decision and move on. It really is that simple!

3. Choose your friends wisely: Surround yourself with people who bring clarity to your life. Certain people’s toxicity is negatively contagious and will plant seeds of doubt in your mind. In order to clear your head space, don’t rely on them for advice and to protect your positive energy field you can even cut them off. Form at least one healthy relationship with someone who has a knack for processing thoughts so that you can learn from them.

4. Planning vs perfectionism: Planning with sole purpose to achieve perfection, is a ‘control freak’ type of planning. Instead, it’s smart to plan ahead and remain flexible to changes and things that don’t turn out exactly as you had hoped. Trying to attain perfection is sure to end in a mental overload. To unload the weight, take care of the vital decisions first, stick to the short term plans that you made, then leave some details to fate.

5. Set realistic goals: Even if the unthinkable is possible, some goals need your patience and endurance to be achieved. Your goal is waiting for you, it’s not going anywhere, so accept the time it will take for you to arrive at its destination. In the meantime, enjoy the journey instead of exhausting yourself searching for shortcuts that more often than not leads to dead ends.

6. Ask for help: Multitasking is effective if you are good at solving every issue by yourself, otherwise it feels like wading in mud. Unless you enjoy making mountains out of molehills, it’s best to appease your mind with different and trusted perspectives. There is relief and power to be found in humility and no matter how hard you think about something, controlling every aspect of your life without some kind of assistance is impossible or divine.

7. Live in the now: The past can not be altered and dwelling on yesterday leaves you with no solution other than wiping away your tears. Wishing to have acted differently in the past is unproductive, instead you should focus all your attention in the present moment. Remember nothing ever stays the same; last year you didn’t have as much knowledge as you have now. You are learning and growing every day. Wouldn’t it be boring to go through life knowing all the answers without any obstacles to overcome? Managing the past in the present becomes easier with experience so give it a try and become an expert in living for today.

8. Forgiveness: Holding grudges means resentment festers and this will darken your heart, soul and mind. Dwelling too much on negative past experiences can leave our psyches paralyzed. Review what happened to you, acknowledge it and move on, don’t rewind the regrets and fast forward hatred. Learn to forgive certain memories and people and remember that our short lives are not meant to be analysed but lived. Do this and you will feel lighter and see much more clearly, making it easier to move on.

Helpful Links and Resources To learn more about the topics explored in this blog post please visit: A Therapist’s Guide to Stop Overthinking How to Stop Overthinking/Worrying About the Future

9. Pen down your feelings: Writing down your problems will help you see the bigger picture which will make finding practical solutions much easier. Commit to check in with yourself on a piece of paper once a week and write down all the things which you are grateful for. As a result of the past choices and decisions that you have made, there are parts of your life that run smoothly so celebrate them and congratulate yourself. Doing both will help you achieve balance and keep things in perspective.

10. Trust your gut feeling: To stop over thinking, trust your gut feeling and instinct. Raise your energy and your intuition will improve and guide you towards the right path and the answers you seek will be obviously felt. Why would you spend sleepless nights when you have the ability to wake up with a quick instinctive decision? Try it once and you will be amazed at how right you were.