"THE NEW AGE POISON."

While most of us are worried if we will find a cure of corona virus, I would like to talk about a dreary poison which is not made in some chemical labs but we cook it in our heads ourselves and this poison is made by the vicious combination of overthinking and pessimism. Mind well I am not talking of defensive pessimism, but I am talking about core pessimism. Over the years these two have become unnoticeable yet chronic disorders. What do they think and what will they do? What if’s are hindering the clarity of what we are doing and this completely ruptures our reality while we have spun a virtual web of possibilities that might not even exist. You know the most tricky part about overthinking is that you never realize about it until it reaches a point of seriousness, when you slowly start experiencing those mild headaches, you start hearing the noise of your ceiling fan just because some pool of thoughts are not letting you sleep. Those mild dark circles under your eyes , the very same eyes which were once filled with dreams but now are tired because your brain just wont stop, that smile has just faded and now we are talking about another burning issue which does not even need the permission from the so called “YAMRAAJ” , “DEPRESSION, HERE I HAVE ONE MORE VICTIM FOR YOU TO CONSUME”. Now at this point some of you might just feel she is so boring but I would say please bear for a few more lines because this might just help. So today I’m not writing for proposing the solution but it is to first recognize the problem itself, solution will follow up because it did in my case.

First things first let’s just find where it starts all, in most of the cases that I know it is some event which hurt you the most that let you to overthinking. So, here are a few signs that might just mean that you have been overthinking with which I would also write about how you could possibly also control it and it is totally based on what I and my research with actual people that I am suggesting this.

1.    Insomnia is your new thing buddy. You just wont sleep no matter what!!. So to overcome this you must exhaust your body physically, saturate it so much that all you need and want is that baby sleep. You could do anything you like gym, exercise, jog, play the sport you like or talk to some boring people obviously that was a joke but sometimes also works.

2.    You constantly keep feeling that people give a damn about what you do. Trust me people are least interested in what you do unless you are doing something harmful or excessively noticeable. Yes, people love cooking gossips and it is a part of the human psychology but as far as you know what you are doing and you are not harming someone it is completely within your rights what you do. People have eyes they will  see; they have a mouth they will talk but simply ignore it if it hurts you. Wipe off their existence from your head itself.

3.    You keep having flashbacks and you keep going on through that episode almost every day. Yes, I have totally been there and I also know that it is not easy to forget but what we need to learn is to let go. Occupy your mind somewhere the minute you start thinking of that episode. It won’t stop immediately and remember that no pain or bad memory stays forever, slowly you will forget it, the details will start fading but you have to try, the more you try the better it is. The minute you feel “iss boring series ka episode shuru ho chuka hai” change the channel itself. Engage in something that makes you feel happy it could be anything read, dance, play, music anything at all.

4.    You experience problems in making decisions. So, it makes complete sense why you got here but some bad choices cannot define anything at all. Instead you can always think of all the possibilities while you decide. Every insecurity you have can be talked about, clearing the air is always better than regretting the clouds of darkness.

There are many more such symptoms that you are probably overthinking but these are the few prominent ones and trust me you can stop the harm only if you are aware about it. The thing about our generation is our inability to justify what we do in our impulse, so instead giving a clear thought to our actions may not completely help problems disappear but at least make them less harmful.

           Overthinking is talked about, now let us talk pessimism. Now I never say that you can be positive all day because I myself have never been able to achieve that ideal. But constantly thinking of the opposite of the results that you wish to achieve isn’t helping either. If you see the planning of any war it is never based on the fact that what if we lose, it is based on the simple structure of the combination of if and else. The point is that you can analyze what you wish to do look into the detail of every step, think of various permutations and combinations and create a backup where ever possible. The central idea is not giving up but to keep moving forward with defeats as well. You know over the time I have realized that the amount of time we waste on overthinking and being pessimists, we could do that entire process again and based on what you missed earlier you can just win the next battle. I do understand that you can’t just simply stop your brain from overthinking but I think we all can do enough to avoid the harm and focus on building a better future.

P.S. I understand it got too long this time but if I can help 2 in 100 all of it is worth it.  

Krina Mataliya.