How to Stop Overthinking: 8 Steps to Getting the Spiraling Back into Control
What is Overthinking?
Overthinking is when you dwell or worry about the same thought repeatedly. Overthinking can paralyze you with worry, causing you to struggle to make decisions, and take action Overthinking can contribute to depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues.
Step 1: Self- Awareness
Before you can begin to address your habit of overthinking, first you need to become aware of when it's happening. When feeling anxious or stressed, take the moment to tune into your body and see how you're responding. Awareness is the foundation of change.
Step 2: Wrong or Right? A Reality Check
Overthinking brings us to a place where we focus on what can go wrong. It is focused on the emotion of fear. While honoring your current feelings of overwhelm, ask yourself. What can go right? Visualize these possibilities to open up your perspective and get you out of the spiral.
Step 3: Positive Distractions
After bringing awareness and tuning in, we can have more agency over where we want these thoughts to go. We can add in distractions like meditation, movement, music, or creativity to derail our thoughts and get out of the overanalyzing.
Step 4: Perspective
Are you making a mountain out of a mole hill? Question your perspective to see if your thoughts are proportional to the situation. Shifting our mindset can help shut down overthinking.
Step 5: Acceptance
Practice radical self-acceptance in knowing no matter how much you worry you can not predict the future. Work on what you know, instead of worrying on what can be.
Step 6: Set Boundaries
Give yourself some set boundaries. Sometimes setting aside time to think, worry, analyze, and move through those thoughts fully. Once ten minutes pass, write it all down and get it out of you and onto the page. Toss out the paper and move on.
Step 7: Accept Your Best
Overthinking can be rooted in feelings of not being good enough. Once you've given your best effort, accept that it is done, and while success isn't under your control know you have done what you could do.
Step 8: Express Gratitude
Spend some moments after your overthinking spiral to think of what you're grateful for. Create a list to experience positive encouraging thoughts and realizations after a particularly hard time of spiraling.
