5 Reasons Why You Should Stop Overthinking — the Ultimate solution

Sougat Sarkar
4 min readSep 4, 2021

Overthinking isn’t just some kind of normal daily activity. It’s a mental disorder that can lead to stress, anxiety, and depression if not treated. Of course, it’s natural for people to overthink a situation to make the right decision. But, when people overthink, they worry too much and struggle to choose the right option as they make assumptions in their heads. The simplest definition of overthinking is, “ to worry too much about something for too long in your head”.

Photo by Anthony Tran on Unsplash

5 Reasons to Stop Overthinking

1. Overthinking can lead you to lose your focus and confidence

You may have noticed before that when you find yourself overthinking, it always tends to be a negative thing. When you think too much, you always make false scenarios in your mind, which eventually hurt you and that can lead to bad headaches and low self-esteem.

When you overthink, you always zone out and lose your focus on something you were trying to concentrate on, like an example, “when someone is talking to you or you are taking some important notes, and you couldn’t make a thing out of what they said”, which was a result of worrying too much about something else in your mind.

2. You stress out more when you overthink

One of the main effects of over-thinking is that it puts pressure on your brain, which we call stress. And eventually, it may lead to depression and anxiety if not treated. Stress can affect your organs, such as your brain and It may damage your brain cells. The University of California has researched that stress can lead to mental illness and mood disorders.

3. Overthinking can affect your time

Making things complicated by overthinking is only a waste of your time. Excessive thinkers are always prone to complicate the situation when they cannot decide what is right and what is wrong, and they end up wasting their precious time. By overthinking, you make assumptions about someone or something and after having obtained a negative result in your head, you alternate between the question or response.

4. Difficulty in making the right decision

When people think too much, they are so worried about making a good decision that they lose sight of it and find themselves with negativity and bad decisions. To make the right decisions, you need to have a clear and calm mind, overthinking only complicates the thing.

Overthinking makes you judge people and it may even make an impact on your mental health. But, the good news is that there are many ways we can use to avoid overthinking and to help us make smarter decisions, professionally.

5. It doesn’t stop there

Trust me, it gets exhausting as time goes on. There is no end to a situation when you overthink it. You point out more faults and negativity which will not stop if you continue to think too much.

The Solution for Overthinking

Put the past behind you

you need to understand that you can’t change the past, so stop thinking about “ what ifs” and “could haves”. These words are stuck in your mind, which forces you to overthink your past. Most of the over-thinkers are focused on their past regrets. So the first step is to let go of the past and move forward.

Interact with mood enhancers

Overthinking can lead you to a bad mood and the best way to stop it is by engaging with someone you are comfortable with.

Here are few options you can choose from:

· Hang out with your friends.

· Do what you like, it can be anything like playing guitar, video games, cooking, fishing, grocery shopping, etc.

· Listen to your favorite music.

· Watch movies.

· Go for a walk or drive.

· Meditation.

Take control of your emotions

The most important step to controlling your feelings is to label. Before you can change what you are feeling, identify the emotion you are feeling right now. You can’t let your emotions get the best of you, regrets may try to distract you but you have to snap of it and get back to reality.

So far, we have discussed the causes of overthinking and the actions we should take for it. However, you might believe that there are so many advantages of overthinking. But let me tell you, it makes a major effect on your personality and body. You can always reach for help from your parents or psychiatrist.

Once you find out how to stop thinking too much, I’m sure you’ll be more well-rested and positively impact those around you. Always remember that don’t waste your time on something that happened already, live your life like a champ. Don’t let your negative emotions take over your head.

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