Healthytalk8 Overthinking
Contents
Overcoming overthinking can be easy if individuals know how to control or overcome it, for which some ways are given below.
Rumination or overthinking occurs when you keep thinking about the same thought or issue, especially when it is negative.
It is natural in humans where tension and anxiety thinkings interfere with your daily life, so you have to overcome it.
Here are 9 top-notch ways to overcome overthinking:
Meditation
It is one of the leading ways to overcome overthinking because in meditation you have to focus on one breathing or a point.
Moreover thinking about something during mediation you are not unable to do proper mediation.
It takes time to overcome overthinking, so keep doing meditation, which also brings several other benefits.
If you experience any type of distraction start saying “Om” which cuts the disturbing sound and makes your focus on “Om”.
A 2023 study showed that people with social anxiety disorder doing mindfulness meditation greatly decreases rumination.
Therapies
If you experience long-term overthinking and are unable to control or overcome it, then you have to talk to your doctor.
Doctor consider you CBT (cognitive behaviour therapy) and ACT (Acceptance commitment therapy).
CBT is a type of therapy where you talk to a therapist which helps you to manage your thinking, is mostly used in anxiety and depression.
ACT is a type of therapy where you have to accept the thoughts rather than control them, which also teaches meaningful life.
Metacognitive Therapy is a new method that teaches individuals how to interact with thoughts, by identifying thinking habits.
Cognitive Bias Training: Now new technology or AI has been used to identify what kind of issue are you facing that causes you to overthink.
A study reveals that a brain sense major device can’t provide a therapist with a real-time report of your mental state through brain waves.
Deep Breathing
Overthinking mostly occurs due to stress and deep breathing is one of the best and instant relief ways to overcome rumination.
Research reveals that deep breathing (stress Intervention Functional IFA) is competent in enhancing mood and to decrease levels of stress (2)
See here how can deep breathing way to reduce stress causing overthinking.
During stress, our breath tends to become fast, by breathing so fast, which reduces the oxygen levels in the blood and promotes cortisol levels.
Moreover, deep breathing during stress fills the lungs with enough oxygen, which increases the oxygen level in the blood.
It reduces stress levels, which lowers high BP, and heart rate, which overall contributes to relaxation and calmness.
Tiny Action
Break down your thoughts into tiny pieces, and take action in tiny ways like stop before it goes deep and divert your mind.
Tiny actions help in building momentum it is like discipline where constant work is applied until the goal.
Tiny action brings patience, and calmness, and teach many new things like building your self-esteem, confidence, etc.
Think It is Important
Overthinking about anything whether it is your life-related or unwanted things is just our imagination and it brings negativity.
First, think what you thinking about is more important than other works, and overthinking doesn’t bring any good results.
So make sure to stop thinking about anything for a long time because, in the long term, it may lead to chronic health issues.
Shift Your Thoughts
If you notice that you are unable to stop or control your overthinking then you have to shift your thoughts to other good work (4)
It is another best way to stop your thoughts, stuck in an overthinking look, and then shift your thoughts to other work, breaking your thinking.
Shift thoughts act like a switch, but it doesn’t mean breaking your thoughts, you have to also learn how to overcome rumination.
But you can easily shift your thoughts in positive ways like:
- Get outside
- spend time in nature
- do mental exercises like reading, meditation, writing articles, etc
Overall, overcoming overthinking is not a one-time work, it needs patience, and focus on mental exercises.
Practising Self-Compassion
It is being a good friend to yourself, it means identifying the challenges and working on them, and accepting that nobody is perfect.
Overall, instead of being hard on yourself, kindly treat yourself, but how can it overcome overthinking here are:
Self-compassion distracts the cycle by:
- Reducing stress and guilt feeling
- increase self-confidence and esteem
- focusing on self-compassion brings awareness
A 2023 study reveals that practising self-compassion brings a great change in rumination by decreasing several types of anxieties.
Get Outside in Nature
In my case, I work from home so I do not spend much time outside, which triggered my empty mind and then overthinking.
So getting outside is very effective in diverting your mind, which does not allow your brain to create unimagine (7)
Research shows that people who are more engaged in getting outside in nature have higher self-confidence than others.
One more study reveals that people who are engaged in different types of activities are more likely to maintain positive emotions.
Stay Present
Stay present in what you doing like during meditation focus on just breathing or one point, no other thing.
But how can you stay present at work here are:
- By calm at that point
- focus in work
- if you think that overthinking interferes with your work, then take deep breathing, and treat yourself to your favourite meal.
Down Line
Overthinking is natural in humans, it occurs when individuals are anxious about their concerns which leads to stress and then overthinking.
But it can easily be managed in several ways like getting outside in nature, deep breathing techniques, meditation, exercises, etc.
If you are still unable to control your rumination, then it’s time to talk to a doctor, who suggests some medications or therapy.
