Everyday Canvas

Over-Thinking

Prompt: Over-thinking means obsessing about or over-analyzing regular experiences and interactions, and reading into them things that aren’t actually there. Are you an over-thinker? How do you think one can overcome over-thinking?

===================


In my much earlier years, I used to be an over-thinker to the nth degree. As time heals all heels, decades healed me, even if only to a degree, but I believe my over-thinking is manageable today. I still have lapses and relapses of associating some events I consider negative with other bad things that happened much earlier, and obsessing on things that need to be done. My over-analyzing, luckily, took a back seat to the obsessing and lumping together all the nasty stuff, probably because this was draining me more than ever.

Not only in myself but in other people, too, I see this affliction take hold more often than not. “It must be my karma. This always happens to me,” some say, in misery.

This stance makes me believe that humanity takes great delight in ruminating. I wonder if this is because we want to leave this earth early in order to make space for our offspring or because the preservation-of-the-species instinct plays havoc in our lives. On the other hand, I think it must be because over-thinkers are smart and kindly people who care deeply for others and value their relationships. Unfortunately, while over-thinking, they are hurting themselves.

When it comes to getting a grip on this issue, since the first step in handling any problem is acknowledging it, over-thinkers need to accept they have a problem in this area. Then, as in any sin, they need to forgive themselves for this habit and try to stop seeing the connections to other similar things in the past. I also believe ‘talking out’ the details and connections, or in other words, co-ruminating with friends does not help.

Surely, something that bothers a person too much should be talked out, but with a therapist, or written down to throw it out of the mind like garbage. Talking about it while ruminating over anything re-wires the brain into more over-thinking paths and may even increase the stress hormones.

In the meantime, since thoughts can create our reality, diverting the thinking to other avenues such as learning new things, practicing thankfulness, breathing exercises, and doing physical things like sports, jogging, and yoga will also be helpful and will let the mind concentrate on different matters. As the saying goes, “An idle mind is the devil’s playground.”