Overthinking

Hi! Overthinking is really big problem for me as well. It depends on what your overthink is connected to. If it is tendency from your personality, or if it comes from low self-esteem etc.

For me I tried sooo many options to something do with it. Nothing much helped except one thing which had some results. Mindfullness meditation. I was sceptic in the beginning, but I was so desperate that I gived a chance to it. The more you practising the better balance and control you have inside yourself.

It not fits to everyone, but you lose nothing if you just try it. 😇

It's just your thoughts nothing more. You don't have control over everything so let go of it. You can't control it so don't worry about it.

@Loveyourfate "It's completely normal to have times when our minds are full of thoughts and worries. Overthinking can sometimes make situations feel more complicated than they are. One helpful approach is to try and focus on what you can control and what you can do right now. Taking small steps and breaking things down into manageable tasks can make things feel less overwhelming. It can also be beneficial to talk about your thoughts and feelings with someone you trust, like a friend, family member, or a therapist. They can provide support and different perspectives. Remember, it's okay to take breaks and give your mind some rest, too. You don't have to have all the answers right away."

@Loveyourfate

If you are sad and depressed, and you find yourself dwelling on certain thoughts, which seem to make you even more sad and depressed, then what you should do in that situation, is continue exactly as you are, but without assuming that your feelings, or your thoughts, are a problem. And without assuming that you need to escape from any feeling, and just let the emotion flow inside you, without reacting to it.

What sadness and depression is designed by natural selection to accomplish, is acceptance.

It is literally an acceptance emotion. Actually, it's more like an integration emotion, but I'm keeping it simple here.

Anger, is a fighting emotion.

Fear, is a running and hiding emotion.

Joy, is a celebrating and sharing and reaping emotion.

Sadness, is an accepting and ruminating emotion.

Now, when it comes to sad things, there is resistance to accepting sad possibilities or sad facts, and that is precisely why you need an emotional reflex to put your system into the right gear to handle that painful acceptance. Like a bowel movement. It's automatic, but it can be impeded.

There is resistance, because of the fact that the thing is difficult to accept. So resistance and difficulty is a given to begin with.

Say you are sad about being lonely. Maybe it's a certain time of year, or day of the week like today, friday. And so like many, myself included, there often comes an feeling of sadness, because your system is aware of something, that we're alone. So you may get lost in all sorts of things. Why? Because what sadness does is it withdraws your attention, and sits you down. It makes things which are otherwise appealing, seem unappealing. This is the apathy aspect of it. It redirects all that attention inwardly on how *** you feel, almost like it wants to feel ***. Because actually... it kind of does. It's trying to unpack the bad feelings so it can feel and accept them. This is part of a kind of psychological integration, and how your system works with information which is constantly changing your self-image and world view. It's literally and simply processing information.

It gets stuck with the feelings, and the resistance to feeling those feelings. We try to bypass those feelings in all kinds of ways, especially with thinking. And thinking itself is a good bypass to feeling feelings.

We think with our (imagined) brains, but we feel with our bodies. So if you shift some of your attention away from your head (and brain) and into your body, relaxed muscles and deep breaths, you will open up more to feelings and emotions. And they will process more.

I get sad everyday, and when I feel struggle, it's an instant signpost that I'm running away from something, and I literally will stop and just sit and breath and relax and open up my body and muscles to the feeling and sort of feel my way towards what I don't want to accept. It's mostly feelings, and little bit of attached thoughts. And I just sort of exhale and accept the *** truths of life, and it actually works.

Before I was bypass in so many ways, I was almost insane. I would literally talk to myself. And do other things. It was all bypassing. Thinking. Distracting. All in the name of avoiding feelings.

When I'm really overwhelmed with deep sadness, it can be actually incapacitating, and I will sit like a statue, half dead. But really I'm just deep processing, and not much excessive thinking is going on, I'm kind of just letting the feeling digest like food, and I know from experience, that in a certain amount of time it will digest and pass. And it does.

All that's needed is to not react too much to them. And thinking, is a subtle way we react to and evade our feelings.

I wish I could put that more simple and better. I hope it's understandable anyway.

@Loveyourfate I feel that if you are overthinking and that is making you depressed that I would say that you need to sit with your thoughts for sometime or even write /type down your thoughts on a paper, or computer notes, and then analyse what is wrong, that should help !

@Loveyourfate       I'm sorry to hear that you are struggling with such a depression. I know it has to feel miserable with the constant overthinking. I know overthinking can lead to bringing on even more stressors. What are some things you can do to avoid this, or at least slow it down and distract yourself?

I use a rubber band on my wrist. Every time I think negative thoughts or a subject I don’t want to think of (or scenario) I snap the rubber band. It’s also useful to help you stop chewing your nails.