Stillwater “Overthinking Definition: A habit that prevents you from taking action. It consumes your energy, disables your ability to make decisions, and puts you on a loop of thinking and thinking over and again.”
You know what’s ironic? Overthinking about how you’re going to write a blog post about ‘overthinking’.
I know we’re taught to love ourselves flaws and all. But if there’s one thing I could change about myself, it would be to stop overthinking every.little.thing.
Thoughts about money, friendships, health, work *sings* you name it, I’m constantly thinking about it. I find myself predicting the worst scenarios of losing friends, not being able to afford our mortgage and even worrying that I worry. It effects my sleep, I’ll feel nauseous and basically I’m just a nervous wreck 75% of the time.
I’ve always been a deep-thinker. From a young age, I was a lover of seeking new information, kept a bullet journal for thousands of lists and prided myself on being a perfectionist. But now I’m older none of these things feel so thrilling. They feel like more of a burden…
Can you believe it took me a good hour to decide on the title for this post? Then another hour or so chopping and changing the first paragraph because I wasn’t quite sure how to introduce this pain in the ass subject that challenges me every single day. But that my friends, is what overthinking will do to you.
Before the Christmas break I mentioned how much I was overthinking and how I where to buy Misoprostol longed for a break from house stress, work and general responsibilities. Truth is, I didn’t feel like I had a break. I spent most of it worrying about what I had to do next. And by the time I went back to work I felt exhausted.
I made it my new year’s resolution for 2017 to try and not dwell on things that I couldn’t change and stop worrying so much. But then I remembered, lordy this isn’t the first time I’ve set this goal. It seems no matter how many times I tell myself to stop overthinking, I still fall back into the same bad habits faster than me reaching for the door when my ASOS delivery arrives.
I’ve been feeling very stuck in my own head and my thoughts for what feels like forever now. I have the ability to make simple things seem complex and convince myself that the tiniest and trivial things really matter. And why? (This is the million-dollar question for an overthinker just FYI).
Let me set the scene for you. So, I’m having a conversation with someone. Out of the blue I start to think of something that happened to me either that day or from the past. I proceed to analyse this thing. I ask myself “why’d that happen then?” because I can’t understand it. Then I begin to think about all the different scenarios of how I could’ve changed the situation. By this point there’s a silence. The person I’m “in a conversation with” is staring at me saying “Karina…Karina? Did you hear me?”. I’ve only gone and completely missed the whole conversation. It’s not OK.
I have no idea when or how my overthinking got so out of hand, all I can tell you is that it’s something I’m continuously trying to manage. That along with repetitive negative thoughts – but that’s for another time and another blog post.
The majority of the time I can honestly say that I’m a positive and idealistic person (hence the blog name don’t ya know). I’m a real dreamer and advocate for getting my ducks in a row to achieve those dreams. But there’s a fine line between dreaming and overthinking. There’s something in me that always feels the need to know what’s going to happen and how I can prepare for it. I go through stages of feeling on top of the world, sky’s the limit to feeling tense and irritable. But somethings gotta give. It’s time to stop thinking why and start thinking so what!
There’s no quick fix to “curing” an over imaginative mind. But what I can do is stop holding myself back from the good things in life and start to reclaim power over my thoughts. I’ve found the following 5 things can really help limit my overthinking;
- Notice the warning signs for toxic thoughts and put them into a wider perspective. E.g will I care about this in a months time? Probs not.
- Set myself deadlines and stick to them, by force.
- Change the scenery – get up and walk around, take in some fresh air or take in new surroundings in a different room.
- Accept that I can’t control everything.
- When I start to overthink, literal shout “STOP IT”. This is tried & tested btw and works quite well if I do say so myself.
I’m sure I’ve babbled on longer than I need to for this post. And I’m not sure on the ending because it will always be a challenge for me. But for now, it’s about being aware, finding a way to channel that bad energy and turning those negative thoughts into a positive.
So let’s call this my first ‘think piece’ shall we?
Do you have any other tips for overthinking? I’d love to hear them, I need all the tips I get!
Jumper | H&M (sold out, similar here)
Jeans | Topshop (in the sale!)
Boots | River Island (in the sale!)
Bag | Zara (sold out)
