How To Stop Overthinking And Overcome Anxiety

 

How To Stop Overthinking And Anxiety

Overcoming obsessive thoughts requires an action plan. If you want to stop overthinking, you need to find straightforward techniques that work, and repeat them until they become second nature. You may also benefit from therapy or medical interventions if your anxiety is especially debilitating, but you can use practical exercises in conjunction with these treatments.

Here are five of the best ways to overcome anxiety and put a stop to your relentless loop of thoughts. As you get used to them, you can adapt and adjust them to suit you. So, keep reading to discover how to stop overthinking today!

5 Ways To Stop Overthinking Now

1. Be Aware Of Your Thought Process And Anxiety Triggers

Obsessive overthinking is different for everyone, so it’s vital to know your anxiety triggers. It helps to cultivate a deeper level of awareness of your overthinking, asking questions about why and when it occurs. Start paying closer attention to your thought processes, and notice when you’re thinking in an unproductive way. Note down what you’re thinking, and the form it takes.

For example, are you replaying a previous conversation on a loop, analyzing it for your failures?

Alternatively, are you picturing future disaster scenarios in your imagination? In addition, write what you think instigated the overthinking. Was it something to do with a social interaction? Uncertainty? Going to a new environment?

Your notes will quickly help you pick out specific triggers for your anxiety. This gives you ammunition to challenge the underlying limiting beliefs through reflection or journal work. In time, you will be able to preempt triggers before they cause a serious episode of overthinking, intervening with some of the further techniques listed below. Eventually, the hope is that the triggers will also become less powerful because you’ll understand their origins and know how to fight back in your mind.

2. How To Stop Overthinking With These Organization Tips

One of the best ways to stop overthinking is to harness new practical ways of dealing with life’s challenges. Consider the following tips in particular when trying to learn how to stop overthinking:

1. Adopt a wider perspective. When something is bothering you, ask yourself: will this matter in a year? How about a month? How about a few weeks? Often, you’ll find it won’t matter even a month down the line. This can help you relax.
2. Make time-limited decisions. For example, you might give yourself five minutes to decide about something minor (e.g. whether you’re going to some housework or whether you’ll go to the gym today). Meanwhile, you might take at most half an hour to decide on a bigger issue like whether to give a presentation or attend a big social event.
3. Take breaks throughout the day. Reduced overall anxiety levels by taking regular breaks to do calming things (e.g. 10 minutes of meditation, 30 minutes of reading a fiction book or 20 minutes of walking in the park).
4. Minimize overwhelming input. It’s also helpful to set time limits on things like working with emails, reading social media etc. If one of your triggers is this type of sensory overload, you might give yourself 15 minutes four times a day for these tasks, but no more.

3. Use Positive Daily Affirmations For Anxiety

Affirmations are statements that help you overcome negative thoughts. They are particularly useful if you want to learn how to stop overthinking at night or want to set yourself up for a great day first thing in the morning.

Here are some good affirmations for anxiety:

• “I have the power to decide what I will think about. My thoughts do not control me.”
• “Right now, I release my obsessive thoughts and let them go.”
• “I refuse to allow my imagination to show me disastrous futures.”
• “We all live in the present moment and appreciate the beauty of what’s happening now.”
• “I am more than my negative thoughts. I can and will be happy.”

You can also design your own positive daily affirmations. There are no set rules for the form they must take. In addition, try saying them into the mirror, looking straight into your own eyes. And smile, if it feels natural.

4. Get Active! Retrain Your Brain To Think Positively

Learning how to stop overthinking, anxiety and restlessness also have a lot to do with building better connections with your physical body. Both physical and mental forms of positive stimulation help to rewrite problematic, negative thought processes. For example:

• Exercise can work wonders for the over-thinker. It focuses the mind on something straightforward, structured and rewarding, turning pent-up energy into something you can use. It also floods the body with feel-good endorphins that make you more positive in general. Find something you genuinely love, whether it’s a team sport, running in a beautiful place, cycling with friends or swimming laps after work.
• Engage your brain in learning something new. Pick up a new language, try something creative you’ve never attempted before, figure out how to play a new problem-solving game (e.g. chess, Sudoku or Scrabble), or take up some form of crafting.
• You can practice meditation for overthinking. Simple, 10-minute body scanning exercises work well here. Breathe deeply for a few minutes, then consider the sensations in each part of your body, working from head to do. Notice tension, and release it. Alternatively, deep breathing also works well on its own. Breathe in through the nose for two seconds, and out through the mouth for four. This pattern is proven to be the most relaxing.

5. Be Patient And Live In The Now

Learning how to stop overthinking and worrying also involves cultivating ways of better living in the present moment. Firstly, don’t allow yourself to be held hostage by vague fears about what might happen to you. Instead, confront the toughest question: What is the worst that could happen? Often, it won’t be as bad as you think.

In addition, you’ll typically discover you actually have the resources to deal with the worst-case scenario. Secondly, use techniques that anchor you in the present moment, such as hypnosis for anxiety. When you’re overthinking, slow down physically. Try to notice every movement of your muscles and everything around you. Your brain will slow in response. You can also try narrating the present in your head (e.g. “Now I am taking a walk. Now I am getting dressed”) to pull yourself back to the present.

Are You Ready To Overcome Anxiety And Live Your Dream Life?

Finally, work to accept that you cannot control everything. This is the aim of your overthinking, and it’s ultimately holding you back. To grow and develop as a person, you need to willingly move out of your comfort zone into places where the unexpected can happen. You also need to be able to learn from mistakes and see them as opportunities for improvement rather than as failures.