It is easy for anyone to get caught up in overthinking. We come across many day-to-day situations that puzzle our thoughts and drain our energy. We overthink many things, from work issues to relationships. In this article, you will read a few tips on how to stop overthinking. These tips are personal and have worked for me.

How would you know that you are an overthinker? Or you have been overthinking lately? Here are a few signs-

–You worry about things you have no control over.

–You think a lot about results instead of working.

–You think about things you could have done or said in past.

–If things don’t go your way, it bothers you a lot.

–You have difficulty focusing on things because your brain won’t shut off.

I had similar issues. I searched for many tips and scientific ways online. Some worked, and some didn’t. Here are 10 tips on how to stop overthinking that I could sum up.

How to Stop Overthinking: 10 Personal Tips That Worked

Now let’s discuss how you can improve your problem of overthinking!

1. How long Will This Matter?

Does it happen to you that you waste an ample amount of time worrying about an issue and later regret doing it?

Many things appear important at first, if you filter out things it would become easier for you to recognize what is important. But how will you filter it? On what basis? 

For me, I think of it on the perimeter of how long it will matter to me. If it will only affect me for a day or two, I decide not to give it much importance.

For example, if you forgot to bring an important document but the work it was needed for can be done the day after, do not spend time panicking.

On the other hand, if you have to make a decision that makes affects you for years, like going for a degree or marrying someone, take out time to think about it because it is important!

2. Do Positive Deeds

Doing positive deeds makes you think about others’ lives and shift your focus from yours. When you take a little step to help someone or make someone happy, it influences you positively. 

Some recent studies have shown that when you make others happy, you become happy too, sometimes happier than doing things for yourself!

If you are overthinking about a mistake you did, probably doing something good or trying to amend things instead of overthinking will help you feel better.

3. Acknowledge the Positives Of Your Life

This is something very cliche but it is one of the most necessary things to stop overthinking. It is not easy to stay positive all the time, we are all humans after all!

Acknowledging the positives helps you to cope with things that go wrong. Ignoring the negatives is never the solution.

Your life will become much more peaceful when you start accepting the odds, the negatives! Things will definitely go wrong, it depends on you how much you let them affect you.

In a short story, A friend of mine was going through some personal problems, she got to work with a social group where she saw women going through much more than she could think. She told me how her own problems have become smaller in her mind and now she has started being grateful for all the positives she has.

If you are able to find out the positives in negative situations, that is one of the most powerful traits you will acquire in life!

Want to make your room more positive? Here are Things that add positivity to your room.

4. Focus On What’s In Your Control

It is easy to get feel low and overthink when things don’t go our way in life. I learned this thing in recent years to ask myself – How much of this is in my control? 

When we focus on what is in our control, our mind suppresses the negative factors and triggers positive emotions.

It is better to direct our energy onto components we can actually control instead of giving our power to things we cannot control. Trying to control what isn’t in your control will only drain your energy.

When you are trying to build a business, if you are scared of failure, or you are thinking about how much money it may or may not make.

Instead, you can focus on your work efforts, product quality, and marketing strategy.  What you focus on, will affect your results.

5. Live In The Present

We often end up worrying about the future than to think what we need in the present. Living in the present solves a lot of ‘how to stop overthinking’ and makes things less complex.

Think about what you can get out of a situation in the present and try to make it better. If nothing can be done, leave it or it will burn you out.

Many of my personal experiences say things are not as bad as we may think of them initially.

Later we realize how futile it was to be tense and overthinking. Therefore, sometimes it is good to leave overthinking a few things that are not in your control and let the universe work.

Read my article on Ways to Relieve Stress to read about activities that can help you feel better when you are stressed.

6. Learn To Accept and Let Go

One of the best qualities you can acquire on the path of self-growth is the quality of letting go. As easy as I have written it here, it is as difficult as it can get in real life.

Accepting life situations and letting go of things, people, and possessions is hard and therefore we overthink the most when we have to let go of something we love.

When you accept situations, it calms down your mind, helps you stay focused, and take more practical decisions. Similarly letting go of things may be hard but it eventually frees us of the mental burden.

7. Talk To Someone You Trust

Some of us are expressive, some are not. We all have our ways of coping when things go wrong or when something is bothering us.

Talking to someone close or someone you trust can help you relieve your stress and give you a new perspective on your situation.

If you are someone who likes to be alone in such situations, you can write it instead of talking. Writing things will help you clear your thoughts and lower your level of overthinking.

8. Meditation

If you are going through a difficult phase in life, you feel stuck, you overthink, and are unable to manage your emotions, the best thing that I would suggest to anyone is Meditation!

I swear by mediation and the reason is, and I have seen how it has changed my life. Meditation makes us aware of our own thoughts and helps us regulate our emotions.

Many people assume meditation to be very complex but it is not. I watched online videos on how to start meditation.

Simply with 10 minutes of daily meditation, I could feel the changes in a week. Now, whenever I feel thoughts rushing in my mind, all I do is meditate. This is one of the best daily habits that you can inculcate.

9. Be Self Aware

I emphasize this fact again and again in my various blogs that knowing about yourself is the best way to cope with most of the issues in life.

When you know about yourself, you deal with external factors in a better way.

We overthink when things get out of hand, being self-aware will help you recognize things that are in your control and those that aren’t.

Know about your strengths, weaknesses, nature, the way you react to situations, and so on.

I have written a blog on how to journal and know yourself better, check it out here. If you want to buy my Know and Grow Journal Prompts, you can buy them here. 

10. Take Up Something You Love

Having something you love, something that makes you feel better and relaxed is very important. If you already know what that is for you, make time for it in your daily or weekly routine.

Hobbies help you reduce your stress level by shifting your focus to something you love to do.

When you realize that you are overthinking, take out some time to do a hobby and after you feel refreshed go back to the same problem, it will be easier to find out solutions. 

Is the word hobby making this heavy for you? You can simply do anything that you love. When I a stressed or overthinking, I crave my favorite food.

I know it can lead to emotional eating. So I take care of not doing it often, as long as it is occasional, it is fine for me! It’s hard being a foodie!

Read Activities That Can Make You Happy!

Over To You

These were some of the tips on how to stop overthinking. It is not easy to convince your mind every time to stop overthinking but it’s always better to make things simpler. I hope these personal tips of mine will help you with your problem of overthinking. Happy Living!