Do you ever find yourself stuck in a spiral of overthinking? Perhaps for you it is a barrage of endless to do items on your list, or maybe it is a constant stream of worries and 'what ifs'. For some of us, we might spend a lot of time fixating on what might happen, or for others it could be going over and over something that happened in the past. The thing is, this mental gymnastics can be absolutely exhausting! So many of us feel tired much of the time and my hunch is that a lot of it has to do with the excessive mental load that we are carrying. Our minds are designed to think - it is what they do. Yet, we are not designed to be at it 24/7. When we get stuck in a cycle of overthinking, we can end up feeling fatigued, foggy, disconnected, anxious and it can begin to affect our overall health over time.
As a highly sensitive and neurodivergent person myself, I know firsthand the challenges of having a busy mind and the impact it can have on your health. This is why I have dedicated a lot of my adult life in search of practices and tools to help ease a mind that is prone to go into overdrive. In this blog post, I will share with you my top five practices that will help you calm your mind and conquer any overthinking.
Step 1: Recognise the Signs
The first step to overcoming overthinking is simply to recognise the signs when you are in it. This is easier said than done. If, like me, you are well versed in getting pulled into an overthinking loop, then it is easy to get lost way before you get chance to notice. However, with practice it gets easier and there are some common signs to be on the look out for. These include:
Constant worry about things beyond your control
A mind that seems to be racing with negative thoughts
Forgetting bits of a conversation, journey, or activity because you were lost in thought
Difficulty in concentrating
Heavily criticising yourself
Worst-case scenario thinking
Analysis paralysis - difficulty making decisions
Rumination - continually playing out a thought loop in your mind
Feeling anxious
Needing greater reassurance from others
Mental exhaustion
Making mistakes
Disturbed sleep
This is by no means a complete list, but a good sample of what can most commonly happen when we have been spending a lot of time in overthinking mode. Becoming aware is always the first step and the most crucial. Once you identify these patterns, you're on your way to breaking free from the cycle of overthinking.
Step 2: Reconnect With Your Body
Once you have become aware, what can you do about it? Well, my first step is always to reconnect with my body as a way of getting out of my head. Physical activity has been shown, time and time again that it is not only great for your body but also for your mind. Whether it's a yoga session, a brisk walk in nature, or a dance workout in your living room, getting your body moving can help release tension and clear your mind of overthinking. Sometimes this is all we need to create a stop-gap for our minds to breathe in between the thoughts.
However, it is still possible to be in a movement practice, such as Yoga and still be in overthinking mode. This is where another element to a movement practice comes in that is crucial. This involves pairing a movement practice with deep, mindful awareness of how we are feeling in our bodies as they move. When we do this, we add further opportunity to put the thinking mind to rest for a bit. We also allow ourselves to become more deeply aware of any held tension in our bodies too, which can help us to be more conscious about how we move and to hopefully release it. Bringing in this element to any body based practice, can ensure that we don't continue to be stuck in our thinking minds even while we attempt to reconnect through movement.
Step 3: Practice Mindfulness
This leads me nicely on to one of the most powerful tools in combating overthinking: Mindfulness. On the face of it mindfulness seems simple enough. In essence, it is the practice of becoming aware of the present moment, on purpose, without judgement. Simple, right? Well, often the mind has other ideas. But when we practice this on a regular basis, magic happens. Trust me. We start to peel ourselves away from the thinking mind, which doesn't necessarily stop the mental chatter, but allows us to observe it. When we do this, we can start to see patterns in our thinking and often the emotional root of these thoughts. This element is really important, as often our minds get stuck in overthinking due to difficult emotions under the surface that our minds are trying to think their way out of. Unfortunately for the mind, emotions can not be dealth with through thinking. When we become more aware of the emotional roots to our thoughts, we can give ourselves time to feel and release them, rather than storing them up in our bodies and minds.
In practicing mindfulness, we are also able to cultivate a more compassionate approach with ourselves when we do notice that we have gotten stuck in a thought loop, or are experiencing a difficult emotion. This is another important thread to tackling overthinking. How many times does the inner critic like to make an appearance when we are stuck in our minds?
'You should have done that better', That was stupid', 'It is all your fault', 'You're not good enough'... And on they chatter.
The inner critic LOVES a mind on overdrive and one of the ways we can balance this out, is by using our practice of mindfulness to cultivate compassion for ourselves, just like we would a friend. Think about the voice of your inner critic and question whether you would say the same things to a friend or loved one. Most of us would agree that we would not. So by using our practice of mindfulness, we can also practice becoming kinder to ourselves, through awareness of the inner critic and offering compassion to our experience.
When we practice mindfulness formally, it may look like just sitting to take some time to focus on the breath, or becoming aware of our surroundings, and grounded in the present moment. Yet it is so much more than this. Over time, it helps us to grow in resilience, cultivate kindness towards ourselves and others, connect us to our authenticity, help us find perspective and ultimately to gain mastery over our minds. What a powerful practice! There's no reason not to give it a go.
Step 4: Embrace Gratitude
A natural offshoot of Mindfulness, is the practice of gratitude. Often our overthinking minds can take us down many negative rabbit holes. Having a negative bias is part of being a human - a remnant from our hunter-gather days when it helped us to be on the look out for danger and fear the worst. However, times have changed and this bias can be a huge contributor to our tendency to overthink and get caught in a loop. This is why having a gratitude practice can be a game-changer when it comes to combating overthinking.
Practicing gratitude has caught attention in popular culture and you will now frequently see it referenced in shops, social media and other marketing campaigns. Yet it is important to be reminded that at the heart of this practice is a feeling. It is no use writing a list of things you are grateful for just because you feel you ought to be grateful for them. Gratitude needs to be felt in your body. Wherever and however gratitude manifests in your body, it needs to be consciously experienced to reap the benefits from it.
There will be days when it is easy to feel gratitude. On these days you might feel grateful for so many things - your home, your family, the warm sunshine, pizza... However, there will likely be days when it seems like you have faced challenge after challenge and finding something to be grateful for is downright hard. Funnily enough, it is on these days when a gratitude practice can be most powerful. Maybe on these days you are grateful that you had a spare tyre in your car to replace the punctured one. Or maybe you can find gratitude that you have running water at all, even if not one drop of it is hot. Even one, tiny thing to find and feel gratitude for can make the difference between a 'thanking your lucky stars that things weren't worse' mentality and getting lost in a negative, overthinking mind spiral that only leads to further feelings of stress.
Step 5: Seek Support
Remember, you're not alone in this journey. We are all souls wrapped up in our human suits trying our best! However you are feeling there will be another person out there feeling the same thing. Nobody has it all figured out, I promise you. In those moments when you have gotten lost in a negative thought loop and are surfing the anxiety and stress that comes with it, a chat with a trusted person can make all the difference. Whether this be a friend, family member, or a professional, talking about your thoughts and feelings can provide you with valuable insights and perspectives, in turn helping you navigate any moments of overthinking.
So there you have it, five simple steps to calm your busy mind and overcome overthinking. Remember, Rome wasn't built in a day, so be patient and kind to yourself as you embark on this journey towards a more conscious, calm and kinder mind!
🌿🌸🧘
By Nichola Day
Yoga & Mindfulness Teacher, Registered Yoga Therapist
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