What is overthinking?

What does Overthinking mean? Overthinking, or the act of overthinking, is understood as a state of thinking too much. You are constantly evaluating and feeling dissatisfied and miserable with the thoughts you have. Your mind revolves around recurring problems so much that they interfere with your life.

Overthinking is often divided into two branches: ruminating about the past or worrying about the future.

When you think too much, you tend to feel stuck and unable to solve the problem thoroughly. In fact, according to psychotherapist Jessica Foley, “overthinking is not always bad.”

Feeling worried about something for a short period of time can motivate you to take action. However, overthinking will turn into a toxic form of psychology if it becomes an obstacle that prevents you from achieving your set goals, or affects your daily life and spirit.

Overthinking, also known as the act of overthinking, is understood as a condition in which the brain thinks too much, beyond the allowed limit. The brain constantly analyzes, evaluates and feels unsatisfied, miserable with the thoughts you have. Issues that you think about a lot, over and over again, circling around in your mind, the consequence of that is that they have a negative impact on your daily life.
Overthinking is often divided into two main types: thinking about the past or worrying about the future.

When you are lost in thought for too long, you will feel stuck and unable to find any solution to solve the problem most effectively and thoroughly. But there are some facts you don’t know, according to psychotherapist Jessica Foley, “overthinking is not always bad.”

Worrying and thinking a lot about something in a short period of time can motivate you to take action to achieve or solve that problem. However, if you let it become an obstacle that prevents you from achieving your set, detailed planned goals, or affects your daily life, intelligence and spirit, it will will become an extremely toxic and negative form of psychology.

Signs you are overthinking
According to data from Glints Vietnam, up to 93% of people overthink regularly and 78% of them always have headaches because of work and study. The number of people overthinking because of love accounts for only 11%, the rest are about family and other issues.

So what are the signs that you might be overthinking? Take a look at some of the following features:

Can’t think of anything else (other than the problem you’re having)
Unable to relax and rest
Constantly worried and insecure
Mental fatigue
Many negative thoughts
Thinking continuously about certain experiences/situations
Think of the worst-case scenarios
Doubting your own decisions
Exaggerate details
If this situation occurs continuously and with high frequency, you will easily suffer a mental crisis. And why does this act of overthinking happen?

Thinking too much is your way of trying to control the situation and to feel more confident about what’s going to happen. According to clinical neurologist Sanam Hafeez, when we overthink, the brain switches to analytical mode.

At that time, our thoughts revolve around scenarios and expectations about the future. When there is a certain solution, of course anxiety will be minimized.

However, when we cannot escape the state of analysis, the flow of thinking will become a loop, leading to negativity, over-importance of problems, leading to “disease of wandering thoughts”.

Harmful effects of overthinking
No matter what form overthinking takes, it affects both mental health, psychological health and work performance.

A person who thinks too much will suffer the following harmful effects:

Effects on health
People who tend to overthink and be negative about problems are at risk of depression or autism. The main reason is the strong influence on the nervous system when constantly overthinking.

Affects work and study
Thinking too much causes the brain and nervous system to always be in the process of absorbing information and operating.

To a certain limit, you will feel overwhelmed, anxious and tired. You are also at risk of body aches, headaches, even loss of appetite and insomnia; From there, it is difficult to concentrate on work or study.

Too much negative thinking also stagnates problem solving and creative thinking abilities. This is a danger to both work and life.

How to overcome overthinking?
Studies have shown that being less measured in thinking is the secret to helping solve problems more effectively. Join Glints to review the ways to reduce overthinking below:

Distract yourself
Instead of sitting idle and thinking endlessly about one thing, you can “drum up” yourself.

Your brain can find a solution to a problem more effectively when you focus on doing something else, such as cleaning the house or cooking or gardening.

Additionally, distracting yourself from your thoughts is allowing yourself to rest. Not only will you be able to do something more useful, but you will also be able to find a way out of the previous problem without thinking too much about it.

Analyze the reasons
What is the reason for overthinking? Overthinking is often triggered by a number of reasons such as regrets about the past, worries about the future, self-doubt, and stress from work and study.

Identifying the reason will help us proactively avoid those situations. Even if you can’t avoid them completely, you’ll know to be alert for these harmful stimuli.

Develop interpersonal skills
Interpersonal skills are also known as interpersonal skills. Studies also show that cultivating this skill will help you reduce overthinking.

Perfectionists and ambitious people tend to overthink because they have a fear of losing and often self-criticize even the smallest mistakes. These personal skills will have a direct impact, helping to reduce mental crises caused by thinking too much.

So don’t forget:

Increase self-awareness
Enhance self-confidence
Practice calmness and self-control
Face negative thoughts
You should remember: what you think is not necessarily true. The negative things you infer are just hypotheses and you need to learn to frame them more positively.

Confront these negative thoughts with a multi-dimensional view for better judgment.

Although this may not be easy, with practice, you will be able to replace these uncertain problems with more positive, useful thoughts.

Immerse yourself in nature
Whether you are in a city, metropolis or rural area; Fresh air will help you relax a lot.

Scientists have shown that walking for about 90 minutes in a green environment will reduce the ability to think too much. An environment with little noise and the colors and sounds of nature helps us focus a lot less on negative thoughts.

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Tags: Exaggerate, Mental fatigue, overthinking, Overthinking mean, Signs you are, What is overthinking?