5 Steps to Stop Over-Thinking

1/ Realise You’re Doing It – The first step in putting a stop to over-thinking about everything is to acknowledge that you’re a worrier.

Awareness is the first step to stopping overthinking. So start noticing the way you are thinking, and if you realise that you have begun to re-run events in your mind over and over, and are second-guessing what people thought, or are predicting that things you cannot control will go horribly wrong, acknowledge what is happening and that this is not helpful.

Simply acknowledging that you are over-thinking can help you come back to the reality of the situation.

2/ Put a Positive Slant on Things – Don’t think of what can go wrong, but what can go right. Very often overthinking is caused by fear. And this fear brings to mind all the negative things that could happen.

So the next time you sense that your thoughts are starting to spiral in that direction, pause them and concentrate on imagining a positive outcome. Picture all the things that might go right and keep returning to these positive images.

3/ Distract Yourself from Yourself – When you overthink things, those thoughts and worries start to take over your mind. You can fight back by immediately doing something else that engages your brain.

This could include writing in a journal, doing some exercise, reading an article, or calling up your best friend. Whatever you can do to get yourself out of that moment of worry, take action and do it.

You’ll be surprised at how quickly the thoughts pass when you don’t give them the power to take over.

4/ Make Time to Over-Think – Mulling over problems for days on end is exhausting and leads nowhere, so put aside 10-20 minutes a day to do this thinking.

Use the time to let yourself worry, ruminate, or mull over whatever you want, but when that time’s up move onto doing something or thinking about something more productive.

If you realise that you’re overthinking at other times, remind yourself that you have that 10-20 minutes set aside for it later.

5/ Put Things into Perspective – It’s always easy to make things bigger and more negative than they need to be. The next time you catch yourself making a mountain out of a molehill, ask yourself how much it will matter in five years. Or, for that matter, next month. Just this simple question, changing up the time frame, can help shut down overthinking.