How to Stop Your Brain From Overthinking?

What is Overthinking?

First, we have to understand the meaning of overthinking. Overthinking is a brain diarrhea. Metaphorically! Imagine you are experiencing diarrhea and what would be the first thing to do? Well, the answer is stop food intake. No matter how much and what you eat, once you have diarrhea your system continues to flush it out. Hence, we keep hydrating our system frequently and give ample time to our system to reset on its own. Similarly, when we experience overthinking and restlessness in our brain it is because our brain is on continues jumping mode or say experiencing diarrhea. So, to check it we need to hydrate it which means keep it calm and stop feeding our brain with any unnecessary thoughts. Give some secluded time to your brain to reset on its own. 

Ways to stop Overthinking

There comes, millions of advices to stop your brain from overthinking by different people, forums, and inspirational videos and blogs. But how many have you really tried the real experiences of people, who have controlled and stopped overthinking by practicing some actual effective methods in their lives? Ugh…the answer is obvious. Trial and tested methods are more effective than notional advices and methods. 

“From my personal experience, I had a bad habit of overthinking and overstressing about both important and unnecessary matter of life and issues which lead me to severe stress and depression few years back. Don’t you worry, I’m not going to tell you to listen to music or start writing a journal, because I honestly tried all those notional methods and ideas to follow them and stop my overthinking habit but it wasn’t that useful. From then, I decided to talk to people who have experienced the same condition of overthinking and how they got the better of it. Their experiences and ideas were so real and inspiring that, it started working on me from the very moment I listened to them.” To stop overthinking means to start thinking straight which can be achieved by a clear mind with no illusion but real facts and logic. Let’s dive into the actual effective methods that would definitely help you overcome your habit of overthinking:

1. Take a real break

Take break from your professional life, from your usual chaos, unnecessary work loads and hectic schedules. Stop it for a week. Take leave if necessary. Overthinking needs proper therapy because in some people it leads to stress and depression. So, yes, it is worth it to take a week’s leave. Dedicate that entire week to yourself and then you can proceed with next steps.

2. Detach yourself from technology

Yes, this is important because technology is a double-edged dagger. It liberates as well as enslaves mankind. Hence, take a break from it too. Challenge yourself to stay away from technology which means, stay away from cell phones, televisions, computers, iPads or any technological device. You might feel restless for first two days but it will make you feel light from inside gradually. You stay away from unnecessary news and updates from other’s life, success, stories, incidents. This cell phone in everyone’s hand is the culprit behind stress and overthinking. You get a text, you start thinking; you get an update, you start thinking. So, ditch it for a week. However, our realistic life is somehow relying on cellphones so use it, if it’s too necessary.

3. Find who you really are

Now, the most important way to stop your brain from overthinking starts here. Every night, when you retire to your bed, sit and start recognizing who you really are. Are you your family, your parents, your spouse, your kid (s), your clothes, your belongings, your body? Recognize and analyze. You are your soul. How you feel being yourself? How your soul feels being happy or sad? How you react or respond to situations and how your soul gets affected by it? Every night you find answer to single question and sleep. Next day when you wake up, you will feel enlightened on a different level. Repeating this for a week would help you discover a new enhanced version of you.

4. Spend time with your family

You are on leave, and you avoid all unnecessary chaos and work load. So, replace it with healthy habits and activities. Spend real time with your family, spouse and kids. Involve with them, help them, share some errands, play with your kids, solve their puzzles. This is a healthy exercise for your brain to inhibit overthinking and overstressing. 

5. Try to be happy

Make yourself happy from deep down. One true fact about this realistic world is no one’s happy from deep down because everyone’s busy in living their life superficially and being happy from outside to show off and showcase their social media wowing life. To become truly happy, forgive someone from your life whom you have been avoiding for some reason, be grateful to others as well as your life, help needy people, feed some hungry people. These practices are a part of realistic world that affects other people in positive way as well as yourself. 

6. Sleep early and rise early

Sleep is an essential factor to keep your brain hydrated. Give proper rest to your brain while you carry on the methods to stop overthinking. Go to bed early and rise from bed early. Early rising is obvious because when you get enough sleep, you automatically rise early. Early rising gives your brain the perfect secluded time to help you analyze yourself. You scrutinize your behavior, attitude, reactions, thoughts, your fears, your weaknesses, your strengths. You get a better understanding about yourself.

7. Recognize negative thoughts

When you get some secluded time, utilize it for recognizing your negative thoughts, your weaknesses, your fears, your worst experiences and failures. What stops you actually? What affects you most? What makes you restless? What makes you overthink? Why you feel dejected and low of yourself? Answer all these questions just to the point. And know how you feel and how it made you relieved?

8. Get busy in what you actually love

Practicing some momentary happiness inducing activities helps you nourish your brain. It makes you feel confident and positive towards your life. It also helps your brain to stop overthinking. You promote the creative skills of your brain which inhibits your brain from overstressing all the time.

9. Get in touch with nature

Nature has a magical impact on your overall health. Your brain cells get super charged and boosted after getting in contact with nature. Soil, sand, grass, plants, trees, fresh air, sunlight, grasslands, hills all these factors enhance your deep conscious leading you to more realistic thoughts and ideas. Nature boosts your brain functioning and helps you relieve from stress. Your conscious mind becomes vulnerable to positive energy and thoughts that significantly stops overthinking.

10. Shift + Delete your past

Past is a good place to visit often but not dwell in frequently. Past causes conflicts in your mind and complicates the thinking process of your brain. Past complicates life and emotions. It stops you from thinking straight. You keep repeating your mistakes, experiences, failures and possibilities to live in past somehow. But living in past creates overstressing. Delete your past permanently. No dwelling, no visiting. Just live in present. Let go all your past experiences. If you’ve learnt something from your past, just keep it in your mind that lesson to enhance your future decisions and possibilities. 

11. Identify your fear and overcome it

Fear stops you from thinking straight. It creates misconceptions, illusions and false beliefs. Fear makes you overthink and pulls you into the marsh of overstressing. It reduces your real capabilities and strengths. Hence, figure out, what you fear from most? Overcome it. If it’s being left alone, then try it. Show yourself, you’re capable of living alone. If it’s taking wrong decisions again and again in your life, then take all right decisions that is morally correct and prove yourself that fear is nothing but an illusion.

12. Keep a smile on your face

That bright curve on your face is so powerful that it is beyond anyone’s comprehension. It actually attracts positivity from the universe. It makes your strong mentally and helps you to fight every negative energy around you. Keep a smile on your face almost all the time, it will make you feel like you’re in love with yourself and your life. This helps you to clear your mind and think straight. This method worked wonders for me to stop my brain from overthinking. 

13. Be more realistic

Overthinking is caused due to beliefs and straight thinking is induced by realistic factors of the world. The world you’re living in. The world where people are blindly following technology, getting detached from nature, falling sick more often, interacting very less socially in person, getting driven by social media. This is the real world. Find ways to be more realistic. How to be a better human being in this social media driven world, how to be a great example of perfect human being? 

Note: All these above methods to stop your brain from overthinking is my personal experience and have no such intentions to impose these ways on anyone or to hurt anyone’s sentiments.

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