For the past few weeks I have been religiously doing one thing; overthinking. If a person could overthink their life away that would probably be me, no doubts there.
Now if you are someone who is familiar with overthinking, then I don't need to explain what I mean by that, however if you are someone who is blessed enough and has no idea what I have been doing with myself for the past few weeks, then let me explain.
Whenever I find myself with time to spare, my mind automatically goes into overdrive about anything and everything. I would start thinking about my life and whether I am living it as I should be or not, I would start thinking about my education, my non-existent career path that I should start and the impending graduation that I will soon have to face and then very very closely followed by LIFE.
All this could very well sound like everyday worries everyone experiences and thinks about, I mean, it all comes back to this whether we like it or not, the very big balloon that beholds everything else, no not earth but our lives.
But it is not that simple.
Every time I start thinking about one of those aspects, or see something that reminds me of something that has already crossed my mind beforehand, it means I won't stop, or more accurately I cannot stop.
I will receive a text from a friend catching up and I will start thinking about our friendship, whether or not I have become a burden to that person yet, whether they are just now realizing their grave mistake by choosing to talk to me or not and so on, and it doesn't stop. It does not stop.
I will sit down afterwards, and think about this time I am wasting, the air I am breathing, about if I am actually of value in this place or not, if I am actually somewhat beneficial to people in my life or some kind of a nuisance to everyone else.
I will think about my next step, what I should be doing with my life because well, everyone else surely has theirs figured out, right?
And if the small little voice at the back of my head tried to make me chill out and realize that I am probably overthinking everything and exaggerating, it all gets worse and I start overthinking about how I am overthinking, lovely right?
An endless loop that somehow opens up and then closes out of nowhere, leaving me in temporary peace. A peace that only lasts for as long as I am occupied and then it all goes haywire again.
Anyone else relates to this?
So now the question is what do I do? How do I stop this habit that will surely drive me crazy one day?
Get a pet maybe? Get a job? Occupy my time in a better way?
All this could actually be a good solution, but here are some other good validated solutions I came across over the years:
- Challenge your own thoughts.
This might sound like a cliched advice, but it does work sometimes. Challenge your own mind, and prove to yourself that you are more or less being ridiculous!
- Focus on solvable issues.
Instead of general overthinking, try to focus on problems that you could actually find a solution for in real time. Anything else can be left for later.
- Schedule your overthinking.
As ridiculous as it sounds, it works! Make specific times for yourself where you are allowed to sit down and have a bit of mind reflection over anything and everything. They say practice makes perfect and so practice will teach you to always keep your brain occupied and only empty it when needed, see?
- Keep yourself occupied.
Having a full schedule, no matter how small the tasks are plays a great role in stopping your mind from having a thinking fest because it has nothing to occupy it.
And finally, always pray-wish-hope for a relieved heart and a peaceful mind.
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