When life gets busy, your mind does too. It’s so easy to get caught up in your thinking, worrying about the past and planning the future, a never-ending cycle. It weighs you down with anxiety and a sense of immense burden, like everything will come crashing down if you don’t get your act together. This is a feeling I know all too well – it shows up in my life all the time, especially when things get hectic. Although it may feel inescapable at times, you can free yourself from the prison of your thoughts with a little mindfulness and active effort.
So, you’re here, caught in a loop of self-criticism and endless stress. Chances are a million thoughts are running through your head and interrupting your schedule while you’re attempting to go about the rest of your life, doing chores, getting schoolwork done, seeing friends. The first step is to simply stop. It doesn’t matter what you’re doing; take a deep breath and put everything on hold for a minute. I find that the key to reducing my overthinking is to press pause and recognize my anxious, rampant thoughts. Disconnect from external distractions, especially your phone or any other devices with social media and take a couple of minutes to immerse yourself in the moment by paying attention to your breathing. By keeping yourself in the present, you place a divide between thoughts about the past or future and your current feelings. It often becomes clear how quickly you give into the storylines of your thoughts when you become aware of them, and as you become more aware, it’s easier to detach yourself from your rampant thinking. Hopefully, you feel a little calmer having embraced this separation of thoughts and emotions.
However, don’t expect these thoughts to disappear immediately– if they persist, another great tactic to use is to brain dump on a piece of paper. Whatever worries are still on your mind, write them down without judgment. This tactic will help you articulate and process the underlying concerns, those that are really causing you discomfort and anxiety. Of course, people have different methods of releasing their stress so if you feel better verbalizing the chaos of your mind, speak to a friend, family member or another figure in your life that can lend an ear. The goal here is to put your anxieties out in the open, where they typically stop spiralling and become much less menacing than you first thought (and trust me, our anxieties are always less serious than we imagine them to be).
It takes a lot of practice to consistently free yourself from a cycle of overthinking. Don’t expect your worries to completely disappear anytime soon (I’m sad to admit that’s impossible). However, it’s very possible to train your mind to recognize when you are getting caught up in a toxic mindset, and eventually realize that you truly do have power over your thoughts.