8 Powerful Ways to Break the Habit of Overthinking

The human mind has over 40,000 thoughts per day. Thoughts can come to mind randomly at any time, and some can be negative or just plain strange. You are not even aware of every thought that crosses your mind because of the sheer number that occur to you. You might feel inclined to entertain every thought, but not all thoughts are worthy of your attention.

People who are more susceptible to the effects of stress have a habit of pondering the same thing over and over again, a practice known as rumination. If you don't learn to recognize your own stress responses and take the driver’s seat, your thoughts will soon start to control you. This is especially evident when you are inundated with stress and negative thinking patterns.

Let’s begin by exploring common emotional, mental, and behavioral manifestations of stress.

Take a moment to assess which of the following you have experienced lately:

●       Your mind is stuck in a rut

●       Your thoughts keep turning in circles

●       You feel powerless to banish stressful thoughts

●       You are indecisive

●       You avoid existing problems

●       You detach and isolate

●       You see a problem or problems as insurmountable

●       Your mind is plagued by intrusive and uncontrollable thoughts

●       You dwell excessively on something, usually with a negative bias

●       You treat every occurrence as though it has an adverse effect

●       You feel a sense of helplessness.

Stress is a natural response to any challenge or difficulty, but it becomes a problem when it interferes with your normal functioning. The same scenario can induce high levels of stress in an individual, while having little to no impact on another. The meaning you give to the stressful event and your capacity for creative problem-solving are just two of the variables at play. A person's ability to cope with stress – their resilience – is enhanced by their ability to maintain a more balanced perspective and solve problems effectively.

Our mind is a powerful tool for thinking through challenges and solving problems. This is exactly what it is designed to do! But our thoughts begin to govern us rather than the other way around when we start to believe that everything we think is real or has already happened. When such thoughts become dominant, we fall into the trap of rumination.

People generally react to perceived stressful situations in one of two ways: by thinking about the same thing over and over again (ruminating) or by actually doing something about it (taking action). They are, respectively, an attempt to avoid confronting the problem or an endeavor to find a solution to it.

Two types of responses to stress:

Response 1: Rumination - a form of avoidance

Response 2: Action - a step towards problem-solving

Why do we ruminate? 

Rumination is being stuck in a loop of obsessive, repetitive and unproductive thinking. You often attempt to engage in repetitive thinking as a way to re-experience uncomfortable and traumatic events in an effort to better cope with them. When you feel bad or guilty about something, you often relive the event in your mind and alter the specifics in such way that makes you feel better. This process temporarily alleviates the emotional toll of the experience, but in the long run, it induces more pain and gets in the way of finding solutions.

You can't separate the truth from the narrative that keeps replaying in your mind unless you become conscious of the ruminating process. Your mind will try to alter the world around you through this kind of thinking, but trying to alter a situation by ignoring it never works. Instead, taking direct action to fix a situation is preferable. Problem-solving is the antidote to rumination. If that’s not feasible and you feel stuck, then you can shift your perspective by creating a new paradigm that replaces the old one.

Example: Two types of responses to a stressful event:

Response 1: Rumination

A stressful event has occurred in Samantha’s life. It has triggered many anxious thoughts in her. Slowly she loses control of her thoughts and starts to ruminate on the past, present and future. Negative thoughts such as "if only I had done this," "why is this happening now," "the worst will happen," and "it is entirely my fault" plague her mind on a daily basis. She can't seem to get her thoughts together, so she either puts off taking action or doesn't do anything at all. Samantha has poor problem-solving skills and she is vulnerable to stress.

Response 2: Action

A stressful event has occurred in Sam’s life. The situation is outside of his control. He deliberates and lays out his potential solutions. Sam is practical and takes action, even if it is a small step towards resolving the issue. Then he thinks, “I am doing what I need to do, I have done the best I can under the circumstances; the rest is not in my control, so I let go; if the problem can’t be solved, then it’s not for me to worry about; life goes on; everything else in my life must go on.” His tendency towards action and effective problem-solving fosters mental toughness.

Stress susceptibility is closely linked with poor problem-solving abilities. When faced with adversity, a person who is vulnerable to stress can swiftly become off-kilter, and the ripple effects of one problem can quickly spread to influence other aspects of his life, including his relationships and his ability to do his job. A resilient person, however, is able to keep their problems contained. Despite setbacks, he is able to remain stable, maintain his life and keep moving forward. For every challenge he encounters, he believes he is greater than the problem and will triumph.

Stress develops when you don't have a strategy for dealing with a difficult scenario. As you saw in the first case study, given the same stressful incident, a person who is prone to stress would avoid dealing with the issue by ruminating over it. His mind is tricking him into thinking that by relentlessly analyzing the matter, he may find a solution. A resilient individual, on the other hand, jumps right into taking action to address the issue. Instead of becoming stuck in his head, he engages with the reality of his circumstances by taking action.

You overthink because you believe that it will generate solutions, but it has the opposite effect. Overthinking impairs your logic and reasoning. The longer you dwell on a particular thought, the more power you give to that thought or problem over your mind, which usually leads to more stress. When you take decisive action however, the stressful thought eventually dissolves.

Remember:

Take action now to avoid disappointment later, as any problem ultimately resurfaces more profoundly if it is not addressed in a timely manner. Interestingly, once you develop the habit of moving from ruminating to taking action, you often see that most challenges are solvable or manageable and you tend to make better choices. Also, bear in mind that stress often reigns over thoughts of yesterday and tomorrow, but the present moment is all you really have. When you recognize this fact, you begin to liberate your mind from torture.

8 Strategies to break the habit of overthinking

As you have seen, it is easy to get trapped in the cycle of recurrent thought patterns. By ruminating, you feel as though you are solving the problem, but you are in fact delaying the solution and increasing your emotional distress. One of the indicators of the "health" of your thinking patterns is the amount of time and attention you are devoting to a certain thought. Next, you will explore some ways to help you shift towards more objective thinking so that you can effectively cope with stressful situations and develop mental strength.

1.Take action: Focus on things you can control rather than worrying about things you can’t change. One of the best ways to defeat fear-based thinking is by doing something instead of ruminating or putting things off. You may find that if you transfer your worry into action, the problem or situation you are facing is not as daunting as it appears. Getting on the front foot and taking action will bring you to the next point: problem-solving.

2. Use Problem-solving: Before jumping to solutions, it’s worth examining how you can shift your perspective on a “problem”. You might start by observing a problem neutrally and adjusting your understanding of it. If you think about it, you'll see that "problems" are the seedbed for all creation; growth and development rarely take place in a state of perfect ease. But where problems exist, solutions arise, along with possibilities for growth.  How you see the problem you are faced with is the first and most important step to solving it. 

Along with shifting your perspective, you also have to be armed with problem-solving abilities in order to shift your attention from mental ruts to real-world options. While this can seem difficult at first, fortunately it is possible to train yourself to become better at solving problems.

Start by strategizing. You need to first carefully consider and catalogue all the potential solutions to any given situation. As you lay out your options, you may even see various angles to tackle the same problem. You might then choose to use these approaches separately or simultaneously. Decide on which approach you want to take and execute your plan.

The next step is to reassess the current state of the situation against the original objective or plan and decide whether the intended result was attained. Any discrepancy between the actual and ideal results indicates that the issue is not yet solved. Then, you need to keep looking for new ways to close the gap.

3. Recognize when you are catastrophizing: You have seen that anxious overthinking commonly results from getting caught up in "what ifs" and stressing about things that haven't happened yet but may go wrong. Yet instead of this kind of emotional thinking, you can use logical thinking. Worrying about something that hasn't happened is futile, so begin by asking yourself what you have to lose if your worst fears come true. Think about the worst possible outcome. The likelihood of the worst-case scenario occurring is typically rather low. Acknowledge your tendency toward catastrophizing and get in the habit of recognizing this pattern. This will help you in regaining your balance. It will also help you to take action towards planning and preparing, in the event that the anticipated problem does happen.

4. Practice mindfulness: You might be thinking that your worries are due to external factors that you experience in the present, yet stress is a result of being preoccupied with the past or the future instead of the here and now. You can’t control the future or alter the past, so the only reality you have is the present. Dwelling in the space outside the present results in stress. Practicing mindfulness entails focusing all your attention on the present moment. The reality is that thoughts of yesterday and tomorrow are just that – thoughts. Now is all you have.

When you realize you can't control the future, you naturally feel less stressed. You can make plans and take action toward a better future, but these actions need to be rooted in the present. Individuals who are resilient have learned to center themselves, maintain their focus, and master their thoughts and emotions. Redirecting your attention to the present is a powerful tool for relieving stress and short-circuiting the temptation to ruminate.

5. Don’t regret lost opportunities: One of the main questions usually circling around a ruminating person’s mind is "what if I had done something else instead?" To dwell in regret is to live in the past, and your ability to seize future opportunities might be hindered by dwelling on past missteps. If you are ready, you will always be able to take advantage of new opportunities. Learn from the past, but don’t dwell there. Looking back to possibilities lost in the past is a surefire recipe for misery.

6. Remember there are no guarantees: Let go of the need for absolute certainty because you will never attain that. What you have right now is much more important than what you may or may not have in the future. So, if you tend to think in terms of threats or "what if" questions, catch yourself and practice mindfulness and come back to the present. Instead of making overly negative predictions, you can make predictions that are neither too positive nor too negative and achieve a more balanced view. And even if the worst-case scenario comes true, how bad could it really be? Is it that terrible? It almost never is. So, there's no reason to get worked up about something that may never happen.

7. Plan: Planning is essential not only to prevent stress, but to thrive. Planning is not the same as worrying, although there can be a fine line between the two. Once you plan, put it to rest and move forward according to your plan, but with flexibility to make adjustments as situations call. Keep in mind that things may not always align with your plan; and when that happens, resist the temptation to slip into catastrophizing or fearing the worst.

8. Release yourself from perfectionism: What you resist usually persists, so why fight so hard? Sometimes you may find that you are too hard on yourself and expect the absolute perfection from the world and yourself. But having these kinds of beliefs and expectations only causes stress and disappointment. When you realign your beliefs with the reality, you can move forward with ease.

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