Overthink to Help Your Health
Do you ever find yourself caught in a spiral of overthinking?
Replaying past conversations, worrying about future events, and analysing anything that comes to mind 🤯
Then one thing changes and you have to go right back to square one.
This can be so exhausting! And it can also have a long-term impact on your health too.
But let’s get one thing straight 👇
You’re not broken.
You don’t need fixing.
This isn’t something that’s wrong with you.
I agree that overthinking is a skill that you likely developed as a stress response due to the circumstances that you experienced in your early environments.
And if you trained yourself into it, you can probably train yourself out of it too.
BUT, you can’t expect to put life on pause until you’re no longer an overthinker – life is much too short!
With that in mind – here’s the game plan.
1. Embrace life head on, don’t hold back!
2. Find what works for you, adopt strategies to maximise the usefulness of overthinking, and minimises the strain of it.
3. Gradually understand why overthinking began and where in your life it’s no longer necessary.
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For the remainder of this page – we’re focusing on step 2! 🔥
This means that your overthinking is now a superpower!
Knowing this you can learn to manage overthinking and reclaim a calm environment for your mind when you need it.
Here are some strategies you could use:
Reflect: Remind yourself which moments thrive due to your overthinking and decide where you’d like to use this skill. Then determine which situations are harmful and when you’d like to minimise its activity. By reflecting and naming these experiences, you’re better primed to recognise them in real time.
Focus on the present moment: Be mindful and ask yourself “What do I need to focus on right now?” This question can remind your what is genuinely important in the moment, rather than getting caught up on the unknowns of the future.
Write a list: Brain dump! This is not a to-do list (that would only add to the chaos!), this is a list to get all the things off your mind. You can refer back to it if you want to, but don’t get stuck on the list – just use it to expel all the buzzing thoughts.
Breathe: Overthinking is usually a stress response, so use your breath to trigger the resting nervous system. Take 10 slow breaths and elongate the exhale, even better if you can inhale through your nose and exhale through the mouth.
Worry Time: Schedule yourself a specific time each day to action the small worries and just get them off your mind. I use this at the beginning of my work day. 15mins to tackle all the little things, so that my mind is calm and settled when I want to address and focus in on the more important things.
I’ve been saving the best until last!! Are you ready?
Evening Routine: The evenings are when you are hormonally primed to calm down – let’s use this! Save the overthinking for the day time. So here’s the best routine to settle the overthinking and store it for the next day.
1. As you finish off your work day, write down everything that’s on your mind at work. This means you can address it first thing tomorrow morning, or just get it off your chest. But at least you won’t have to use your partner or friends as a workplace therapist – save it for HR. This means when you close the laptop, your day is done.
2. Turn all your lights down at home. Stimulate a calm space by letting yourself relax in the zen nature of a low-lit environment.
3. Keep those screens to an absolute minimum. Despite what you might think, TV and scrolling is not ‘chill time’. Your mind is still working hard to process all the information that they throw at you. This can overstimulate your system (*remember the focus for the evening is rest and recovery). Instead, this is prime time to journal or read.
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Remember: Overcoming overthinking takes time and practice. So building up your ability to recognise when to use it and when to let it take the back seat, will take trial and error. But this experimentation process is 100x better than throwing in the towel and not trying at all. This strategy gives you control and long-term progress.
As you dive into this process be patient with yourself and celebrate your progress along the way. If you’re ready to control your overthinking and start living a more present and fulfilling life, book a Spark session with me to discover what you’re capable of.
"In the midst of the chaos, there is also opportunity"
– Sun Tzu
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