Do you stress about what others are saying, what they are doing or not doing; or create stories in your head about reactions? Well.. if you are, then you’re clearly overthinking.

Thinking is good. We all have to use our brains for greater good. It is what separates us from all other beings on this planet.- our ability to think. However there are two types of thinking. The positive type will take you forward. Many great discoveries are the result of it.

But negative thinking or overthinking as it is popularly known is self destructive. It can create stress, give you anxiety and if not controlled, depression.

So what can you do to control it?

I have been a victim of overthinking and even today I get obsessive thoughts in few areas. However I have mechanisms in place to help me recover from this situation. Here’s what I do.

Talk about it :

Talking out loud about what’s going on in your head helps you to clarify the things that are worrying you. It get anxiety out of your system.

You can talk to your spouse, partner, best friend or basically anyone who is willing to listen to you without passing any judgement. If you don’t have any such people in your life… no worries, I highly recommend you to engage with a life coach in your area or find one online. They will become your sounding board and definitely help you get over it. Or you can get in touch with me.

Write it down :

Just like talking, writing it down or journaling can also help you get thoughts out. Writing is actually therapeutic. Positive or negative, if you start writing them down, it can relieve you of every thought you have – the thoughts you don’t want to think that is a

You can write your thoughts in a book, notepad or maybe in a simple word document. Personally I use an app called Day One. They aren’t paying me to say this but I find it amazing. Check that out in your app store.

Practicing Pausing :

This needs a little awareness practice but pausing at the right time will help you first in calming. You may then take deep breaths, fill your lungs with air and stay in that zone for couple of minutes. You may then follow up with either talking it out or writing it down.

To pause you need to be aware. So tuning inside your body with help of say, either meditation or practicing self love, will help you read the signals. Then you can create mechanisms to work before you get caught into your overthinking.

Do you have any specific mechanism you follow? I’d love to hear about it. Do join conversations in our Facebook community.

Watch video version of this blog here