How to Stop Overthinking Everything
What is holding you back from the life that you truly want to live?
One very common and destructive thing is over thinking every situation, wanting it to be an exact way before you are happy, being a perfectionist. This article will help you stop overthinking.
If you overthink every little problem until it becomes bigger and scarier than it actually is Or Overthink positive things in your life until they don’t look so positive anymore. You will find it very difficult to move forward in your life.
Thinking before you act is a good thing don’t get me wrong but when you spend your time running every scenario and don’t actually get things done then that’s bad, It can result in you becoming someone who stands still in life someone who self-sabotages the good things that happen in life.
Below are 5 techniques that you can use to change this way of thinking and live a happier and less fearful life.
- Put things into a wider perspective.
It is very easy to fall into the trap of overthinking minor things in life. So when you have a circling thought playing over and over in your mind ask yourself:
Will this matter to me in 10 years? Or even in 10 weeks?
You may have heard people say “We will laugh at this in years to come” why wait ? Laugh about it today.
- Set short time-limits for decisions.
If you do not have a time-limit for when you must make a decision and take action then you can put it off forever you just keep running made up scenarios in your mind. You cant tell the future. Remember if you don’t ask the answer is always No, if you don’t move you will always stay where you are and if you could tell the future you would know next weeks lotto numbers.
So learn to become better at making decisions and to spring into action by setting deadlines in your daily life. No matter if it is a small or bigger decision.
- Realize that you cannot control everything.
Trying to think things through 50 times can be a way to try to control everything. To cover every eventuality so you do not risk making a mistake, fail or look like a fool.
But the only way to learn is to make mistakes. You weren’t born being able to walk, You tried and fell maybe hundreds of times until eventually after a lot of stumbling and holding onto things you took your first steps. Imagine if you had just sat and thought about all the reasons not to walk or were afraid to try in case you failed!
This is true of life, no one is born with the ability to do anything and a lot of the time we have to make mistakes to know the wrong way doing something before we can learn the right way.
Things that you may be looking at as a negative in a situation may have the ability to stretch you and teach you new skills ultimately allowing you to grow.
So stop trying to control everything. Trying to do so simply doesn’t work because no one can see all possible scenarios in advance.
- Do not get lost in vague fears.
Another trap that people fall into is that they get lost in vague fears about a situation in their life. Their mind runs wild and creates disaster scenarios about what could happen if they do something.
Ask yourself: honestly, what is the worst that could happen?
And when you have figured out what the worst that could happen actually is then spend a LITTLE time to think about what you can do if that pretty unlikely thing happens. But don’t get hung up on it.
I have found that the worst that could realistically happen is usually something that is not as scary as what my mind running wild with vague fear could create.
Finding clarity in this way usually only takes a few minutes but you have to stop and make a conscious effort to do it.
- Ask Yourself Good questions
This is something I use a lot with my clients and it is very powerful.
If you keep saying things like “why does this always happen to me?” or “what is going to go wrong next?” your sub conscious mind is going to go and find an answer to your questions and you start to get images and made up scenarios of what could go wrong.
Your brain is a bit like Google if you ask it a question it will try to find the answer for you but if you ask the wrong question it will still try to find you answers often pointing you in totally the wrong direction.
A good question is something like “How can I stop Overthinking everything” or “how can I make this work for me? “, or “what great things could happen if I do this?”, or “what wonderful things are going to happen to me today?” these kind of questions send your brain off looking for opportunities and positive outcomes. When you start to see these you are more likely to want to move towards them and take Acton !
Hypnosis can help you stop overthinking , you might consider one of my programs as a way of getting straight to the subconscious commitment.
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Regards
Jason J Scoltock