Overthinking : Roads With No Fruitful Destination

Amrutesh Mishra
Nov 8 · 5 min read

Overthinking…..one of my constant best buddy since my childhood.It was, and is in every phase of my beautiful life . It has been making my days even darker. So now , a question , is it a good friend ? Well of course , the answer is a big NO . Let’s find out why…..

At this moment , What is overthinking ? As the name clearly reveals its meaning , it’s excessive thinking . Now , again , to go even more deeper ,what is excessive thinking ? Well, it’s thinking more than usual or more than what you should normally think. So , now we are quite clear and let’s not overthink about what it is.


How does it feel to overthink ? In a nutshell, it feels like we are stuck in a loop of negative thoughts. We keep thinking , over analyzing (of course in a negative way) a situation or an event in the past or which may happen in the future and our mind starts mapping each and every possibility of what might happen. It’s very easy to enter this loop and is that much burdensome to pull out from it. It’s because our mind is tilted towards negativity. The tilt is more for some people and less for other people . We keep on making more and more negative assumptions and then this chain of thoughts goes on increasing . Our thoughts usually consists of what if , will , not and many other such open ended words . We take less action during this process and focus more on using our brain . At the very end ,we feel tired and frustrated , since negative thoughts drain the most energy . We also might feel depressed , a rush of anxiety , and even sometimes some other types of unexplained mental and physical issues. This habit may even lead to the hunger of achieving perfection .

But was it really worth , putting in all your effort , thinking something to the point that you have drained your energy ? Obviously NO .We usually make things more complicated , think that the issue is way more important than what it actually is .This is known by the conscious part of the brain , but not by the subconscious mind which does it . And that is where , it becomes difficult to get rid of this nasty habit.


At the minute , let’s come to the positive section of this article , which will , I hope , convey you what you want . Since , you have been there with me till now , so you must be curious to know whether or not you can stop this chain of recursive negative thoughts . The good news is YES , you can , the bad news is you need to invest in an increased amount of effort because you are already in this state of overthinking.

If you are ready with your investments , then here are the guidelines to get your profit :-

  • Awareness : This is the prime requirement in your battle with overthinking , as it can even be the sufficient step to end it . Realize when you have entered this loop of negative thoughts and observe them by taking a step back . You can even maintain a thought journal , which would be of great help.
  • Meditation : Heard this a hundred times ? Right ? Because that much is its effect , not only in overthinking but also in other mental aspects . The root cause of overthinking is your negative thoughts . Once you change their direction , you would easily see the light at the end of the tunnel . Now to change the thought process , we need to change the state of our mind . Ever wondered , why you get cheerful thoughts when you are happy and downhearted ones when you are sad or depressed ? That’s because of your present state of mind . Sad , happy ,anger are all states of mind , that are temporary . So how do we get a permanent state of mind , that gives us practical merry thoughts ? That is by practising mindful meditation . Want to know more about state of mind and how to change it ? Follow Tony Robbins . I guess, he is the best out there for it .
  • Avoid Overthinking To Find Out How To Stop Overthinking : If you just discovered that you are an over thinker , don’t panic and start to think more and more as to how to get rid of it . Believe me , it’s simple but not easy . You just need to change the direction of your thoughts .
  • Say No To Forcing Yourself To Stop Thoughts : Thoughts are like a stream of water , which you cannot stop forcibly , will cause an accumulation thus increasing pressure , rather you can definitely let it flow in any other direction . The harder you try to stop the thoughts , the more effort you put in , the lesser results you will get. Taming a wild horse is a good metaphor to this . The more constraints you try to put on it . the wilder it becomes , both the horse and your mind . Let your mind do the wandering , but keep observing the chain of thoughts that gets built up.
  • Keep Your Mind Engaged : As is rightly said ,“An idle mind is a devil’s playground “ , and it becomes even more and more devil for over thinkers like you and me . So , keep your mind occupied so that it won’t have any time to devote to overthinking.

BOTTOM LINE : Overthinking is something that you don’t want to get attached to , but it comes uninvited . So beware , watch out when you start developing a bond with it . If you are still reading this , then have a pinch of trust on me , believe in yourself , you can still win this battle and make things better like I did .

    Amrutesh Mishra

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