How to get rid of overthinking?

How to get rid of overthinking? For this - Tie a simple band on your wrist. Whenever you feel that you are thinking too much or going deep down on thoughts. Just Snap the rubber band on your wrist and more hard you snap it the more it will be of help. And then after Snapping your brain gets alerted and alarmed that you are overthinking. Next step is, now that you are aware and know that you shouldn't overthink. Just replace these thoughts with another one or concentrate on things happening right now. You can also perform other task like reading a book or going for walk. This technique really helped me and decreased my problem to considerable amount. It is a method based on scientific research. You can google about it for detailed information.

Have you ever had this happen? You get in your car and start driving to work. You begin to think about something unpleasant or frustrating. The next thing you know, your thirty minute commute is over, and you have no memory of driving yourself to the office. But you do have strong feelings of anxiety, sadness, or self-doubt. Over thinking our problems or worries traps us in a mental loop from which it is very difficult to disengage. I’ve had periods in my life when I was going through an emotional difficulty or a big decision, and I simply couldn’t stop thinking about every detail and possible outcome. I felt imprisoned in my own mind. Even though I knew I was over thinking, my finger was permanently pressing the “on” button in my mind.

According to the American Psychological Association, over thinking involves “repetitive, prolonged, and recurrent thought about one’s self, one’s concerns and one’s experiences.” Over thinking entraps us in a variety of ways — through rumination, worry, self-reproach, and anticipating negative outcomes. You can certainly over think about positive situations and memories as well, through savoring, anticipation, and reminiscing. However, this kind of over thinking doesn’t have the same effects as thoughts about negative or painful experiences or fears.

Aside from making you feel trapped in your mind, negative over thinking can lead to mental and physical problems. Repetitive negative thoughts over a prolonged period of time can lead to stress, anxiety, and clinical depression. Negative brain activity can weaken your immune system, leading to a variety of physical ailments. Studies have shown patients who ruminate about getting sick or having certain side effects of medications (even placebo medications) will actually get sick or experience the side effects.

There’s plenty of reason to stop over thinking, but if you’re trapped in it, all of those reasons only make you feel worse and give you something more to fret about. Ever wonder how to stop overthinking? Here are some ways. Create awareness. When we’re trapped in these negative thought loops, we become so immersed in our thoughts that we don’t recognize how deeply entrenched we are. If you recognize over thinking as one of your regular patterns, then set a mental intention to become aware of it when it’s happening.

When you notice yourself thought looping, just be the observer of your thoughts without judging them or adding a second layer of stress, worrying about your over thinking. Trigger a pattern interrupt. In addition to noticing your over thinking, do something physical to interrupt the looping pattern. Just noticing might do the trick, however, it helps to create some actual “break” in the pattern. You have read about the technique explained above about wearing a rubber band on your wrist (which itself will be a reminder about your thinking), and gently snap it when you notice yourself over thinking. Or if you wear a ring or watch, switch it from one hand to another. The goal is to momentarily activate another part of your brain through a physical reminder, and to bring your thoughts back to reality.

Practice thought replacement. After you interrupt your pattern of over thinking and take a moment to be in the moment, create a positive affirmation or replacement thought that contradicts your negative thinking pattern. For example, if you are worrying about a comment your boss made to you, you might say something like, “I have an open, positive relationship with John, and my performance at work always exceeds his standards.” Make the decision. Sometimes we get trapped in looping thoughts around a big decision. Should I take the job or stay put? Is divorce a better option for both of us or should we keep working on our marriage? Should I put Dad in a nursing home or try to care for him in my home?

When you’re trying to make a decision that has potential negative outcomes for each alternative, you can get stuck in the paralysis of analysis. No clear solution is apparent, and you believe if you keep thinking about it, you’ll get more clarity. Some analysis is necessary for any decision, but eventually you reach the point when there’s nothing more to be considered. You simply have to choose. If we deploy all our energy into the direction that these words will take us through…we are more likely to keep going in circles!!

Thinking how to stop thinking? We have already started thinking and hence we will not be able to stop it, unless we realise this trap. It is likely that those on whom this realisation has not dawned, would sincerely think through this question endlessly. Even before they could realise this, they are trapped and they have already lost the plot. Going further in this direction without realising this trap, will only lead them to exhaustion. In a normal sense, this question has a tendency to put any one to trance with out leading to an answer, as they tend to think how not to think and that defeats their pursuit for an answer.

This question consists of two parts. What is over thinking? How can one stop it? Lets analyse this one by one. What is over thinking? When we think about something beyond a certain point, then can I call it over thinking? How do we measure this certain point? Before this certain point, thinking contributes to Problem Solving. It rejuvenates us, excites us, develops curiosity, it increases our confidence once we find an answer to what we are thinking about etc.

Beyond this certain point, thinking seem to not help us. Instead of finding an answer, it gets us into complication, it blurs our vision & there by exhausting us into dullness or loss of intelligence after a while! So “over thinking” is when thinking leads to complication, exhaustion, blurring of vision & loss of intelligence in us!! How to stop “over thinking”? >How to stop thinking, when our thinking is not helping us? First we need to realise that our thinking process is not helping us, for which first we have to stop thinking about the situation/problem at hand and rather start thinking about the quality of our thinking.

To explain this in a simple way, let me use an example. I have a problem (P) at hand and I want an answer (A) to that Problem (P) So I am at P and want to go to A P→A. I take a long route from P and move into that route, in expectation that I would reach A at some point. After walking through out the route, I am realising that A is not any closer…The more I walk towards A, the road that I am walking tends to get longer and longer there by exhausting me and doubting my logic of how I am navigating to A. Assuming that the road that I walk is circular, now what happens? I start from P and I get back to P and I again start from P and again I get back to P. So the result is exhaustion/doubting our ability to navigate to A from P, after a while! This is what happens, when one starts to “over think”!!

So now the question is how do I realise that I am on a circular route and how do I get out of it. When I aerially go up and look down at the route I travelled, I will realise that why I am moving from P to P all the time, instead of reaching A. But for me to go aerially up, first I have to stop my pursuit of A from P, which logically wouldn’t happen. From the Pursuit of A, we have to move our focus towards evaluating the effectiveness of the method that we are using to find A. We need to move our focus from the Answer to Answer Seeker & his/her methods!!

The more I am attached to point A, The more I believe in myself and my methods, the more likely that I would keep walking towards it, without evaluating/doubting my method or my self! Only when I get tired and exhausted, I will possibly slow down..sit down to take a break and in that moment, is my opportunity to understand that this road is circular and the moment I realise that this road is circular, then I would immediately abandon the road and find out how else to reach A. My Answer to your question : How can one stop overthinking?Just by taking a break & developing your awareness, by distracting you in any other way from the problem/situation at hand and to be able reflect over the entire experience without getting absorbed into the situation/problem at hand.

If you can develop the habit of looking at things from an aerial point, when things are not working I think that habit will help you escape this stupidity of going in circles inside one’s micro level thinking!! In a larger sense, we are caught up with many things in life and pursuing them again and again may only tire us & dull us, if our methods of pursuit are not effective. Hence the need for break every day. That is what is the purpose of meditation.

Especially if you can meditate when you are alert at your best, so that you can be ready for the jump from “going in circles” to “aerial drone view”. Hence it is best to do meditation, when you wake-up in the morning when you are still in trance, rested and rejuvenated, but not yet caught up with your routine circular thinking processes again. Making use of this time for self-reflection to help you resolve all your ineffectiveness inside your personality is the way to Light!! So the larger answer for this question is..Take a Break that will allow you into contemplative reflection without any specific objective, every time you feel exhausted with your thinking…or simply make it a habit to meditate in the morning, when you have just woken -up, for 10–15 minutes every day to stop “over thinking”! Cheers!