How to dig deep into overthinking?
If overthinking is your default mode, it might be your brain's way of trying to control an environment that once felt uncontrollable.
It's a survival mechanism, honed by years of living in an unpredictable environment. Your mind learned to anticipate every possible outcome as a way to protect you from harm. When chaos is the
norm, the mind adapts.
Our past experiences shape our present behaviors. Often in ways we don't fully understand. Unless we recognize and address the root causes of our anxiety and overthinking, we'll likely continue to operate from a place of fear and hypervigilance.
This hypervigilance once kept you safe. It helped you navigate treacherous waters, anticipate the next crisis, but now in calmer seas, that same lifesaving skill might be anchoring you to old fears.
Breaking free from this pattern isn't about simply thinking less. It's about retraining your brain to recognize safety, to understand that not every situation requires intense scrutiny.
While our overthinking may have once protected us, it doesn't have to define our future interactions with the world.
Tell us what you think (:
What if overthinking seem to still help me survive and also make hard to survive?
@moonlightinnight
I feel you there. Even though it makes us feel a bit safer, it can be so draining to think about all the "what ifs".
Borrowing your own words a bit, what about overthinking makes it harder for you to survive? Curiously.
Yessss it sounds like overthinking is caused by ptsd. The fear is so huge that overthinking happens to make sure every possible outcome is contemplated. Overthinking is draining because we have to maintain being high alert even when there’s no danger. Recognising safety to not overthink is a great idea.
@daydreammemories My thoughts: you are right, but also, how do I know that it’s safe now? Every time in the past that it got “safe” and I trusted it, my world would change again into something worse than before. If I didn’t trust it was “safe”, you are right, it is the norm. There is no disappointment, a different perspective in the sense of fear, and how do I know that I can be safe? I can’t.
That resonates with me. I can't even really remember what feeling a sense of safety was like. I'm better off not letting myself get too comfortable in everything.
@AmyGrace55555 @Torean this is so, so relatable. for some of us, it's not like the seas are calmer now. it's not that overthinking helped us in the past, it still does, in a way. a sense of safety is so hard to feel in an unpredictable world where anything can happen any moment. a world with a lot of not-so-good people in it. a world where some people really love to criticise and judge you for every little action. especially when we have seen a lot of unpredictability, not-so-good people, criticism, and judgment for ourselves. i can't possibly train my brain to recognise safety when i don't even know if such a thing truly exists.
@daydreammemories very well said ^-^ I think we hardly ever over analysis the good out of a situation in a good way @_@ The brain's always on the 'Good but what's the hidden agenda here that will turn this all against us' mode. Sometimes our fears affect the hopes we have, many times the hopes are only held up in anticipation of when they'll hit the floor. A middle ground would help a lot to not let the anxiety control the outcome of a neutral situation.
@daydreammemories
Overthinking involves letting the automatic negative thoughts take control over you. This leads one to feel stressed and may cause damage to health. Thus, it is important that one takes control of what they think.
Thoughts come and go. It is important that you notice and label whether you are having a thought, feeling, etc. Thoughts lead you to 'feel' a certain way. It is impossible to drive thoughts away. It is about accepting and letting those thoughts come and go.
For example, if I have an exam coming up. And have lots of syllabus to complete.
I might feel anxious. So I say that, " I am having the feeling of anxiety." It is normal to experience feelings like these(anxiety). They might even help you succeed in your test. This is just one of the many ways to practice mindfulness.
Mindfulness can be practised to relieve yourself of the stress that is caused due to overthinking. Similarly, anyone can practise techniques like these to overcome stressful events or situations in any areas of their life.
@daydreammemories
I agree. I would like to break free from overthinking. Nowadays I'm trying to avoid all-or-no concept. My brain used to take that as default and it was like a torture.
@notjustsomeone
I think its really good that you're trying, and thank you for talking about it. Change takes time and effort, and it sounds like you're on the right track. Would you be willing to share one of the ways you deal with those all-or-nothing thoughts?
@FirmWind
Thank you for your kind wishes.
I am not a role model but just a struggling person. But still I will try to share my work in progress. From my previous experiences of being too self conscious and being of people pleasing nature, I try to remind myself that the situation is not as bad as I'm thinking at the moment. I may have made some mistakes but I am worthy and that's what matters, not what I think about what others think of me in my anxious head.
What method you do implement?
@notjustsomeone
That's a good approach. We all start out as novices, but after a thousand mistakes we can become experts. Experience doesn't always come for free, but fixing up failures can make you feel confident and generates the perception of reliability in others.
Personally, I stick to the no assumptions and no judgement policy. Observations are useful, but I tend to ask questions even if the questions sound stupid. If I do make an assumption about someone or something, I hold it out as a theory and nothing more. Without evidence to support my thoughts they shouldn't be used to bias anything. I am entitled to my opinion, but it belongs to me and no-one else.
If I dig deep into my overthinking I'll end up overthinking my overthinking lol
Everytime my brain starts to think in terms of safety something or someone comes along to remind brain that safety is merely an illusion
@mytwistedsoul fr fr
@mytwistedsoul very true indeed. and i think some brains just can't create that illusion, while i guess some can.