Oliver Collins - Overthinking: The Ultimate Guide to Master your Mind by Increasing your Self-Esteem, Eliminating Anxiety, Stress, Negativity, and Clutter

In the beginning, ancient man only needed to worry about survival. Life for him was all about finding food, shelter, and a mating partner. Yes, he was preyed upon by larger predators, but that was the easy life. With the advent of civilization, new and more pressing problems were thrown up. Second only to survival, the quest to be happy and successful became our biggest concern.

Everybody wants to leave their footprints in the sands of time. We all want to excel at work, win the biggest awards on offer, and be happy while we do it. We want to live a fulfilled life full of achievements and inner peace. Sadly, not everyone gets to enjoy the mental peace we all deserve and want. There are many reasons for these, but the most dominant and potent threat to finding happiness is within us our minds! Are you surprised? Skeptical? Distrustful of that fact?

The human mind (and brain) is the most complex biological complex on this planet and is the major reason we have been able to bend the planet to our will and needs. So, our superpower as humans is the ability to think. We are the dominant species in the world because no other species has our thinking abilities.

On an individual level, the mind is also the most important difference between different categories of people. We are what our minds are. If your mind is filled with positive thoughts, you automatically acquire a positive outlook on life. If your mind is filled with negativity, you manifest outward signs of negativity. If your mind works in the right way, your odds of becoming successful become increased. And if it works against your wishes, it becomes impossible to do the things you want to do. Nothing is more important than the kind and frequency of thoughts we harbor in our minds. That is what this book is going to be about.

Practically everyone knows that proper thinking is the only way to lasting happiness and fulfillment. A bad situation requires you to have the right thoughts to pull out of it. Even good outcomes rely on effective planning, and planning is a function of thinking. Every action and decision you take is a product of your thoughts, positive or negative. We cannot function without thinking thinking is life, and our life is built on our thoughts. The most proactive and best thinkers go farthest along their chosen paths. Often, thinking is a critical requirement for success. We cannot live without thinking!

But what happens when we are overwhelmed by our thoughts? What happens when your thoughts threaten to make you feel underwhelmed by what you have been able to achieve? What goes wrong when you become unable to shut off your thoughts, and it keeps you pinned to a spot instead of pushing you forward towards your goals? Your thoughts change from the constructive platform they are into a dangerous and potent threat to you. You become an overthinker who is weighed down under the weight of his thoughts instead of liberated by them. Often, when you allow overthinking to become your inseparable companion, mental chaos, carnage, and mental instability burst forth to render you incapable of accessing peace of mind. That is why I have written this book for you.

Overthinking is perhaps the most common disease of the mind. It is also unique in how it acts because it can precipitate every other mental disorder and ailment. It damages the mind and makes you incapable of making the right decisions and actions. It inactivates you!

With overthinking, you dwell on your thoughts without trying to make logical sense from them. The normal transition from thoughts into action is also impossible because you are entirely given to the thoughts that dominate your mind. Your thoughts become cancerous they proliferate out of your control and multiply without your conscious permission. You become tied down by them, and they strangle any positive action you may wish to take. This leads to mental paralysis and its associated problems. Depression, anxiety, and stress find fertile ground to grow in mind and further worsen your mental health. The worsening mental health provides further fuel for overthinking, causing it to become even worse and more damaging.

The worst thing about overthinking is that it subtly creeps into ones life and takes over the mind. You may not notice that you are an overthinker until you are mentally paralyzed. Most sufferers do not even realize that they are victims of their thoughts. The symptoms they see convince them that they are sufferers of other conditions such as anxiety and depression. But often, they are slow to understand that all their other ailments spring from their inability to quiet the voices in their head.

Yes, the most important relationship and conversations are the ones between you and your mind. The things you whisper to yourself through your thoughts act as programs that your brain must follow. So, when overthinking makes these thought threats to you, it is hard to find succor. Our mind controls our physical actions, conscious and subconscious, and when overthinking weakens the mind, it shows in your actions. It becomes impossible to seek happiness, and you may even begin to feel guilty for wanting to be happy.

The effects of this are so varied and bad that I am sure we cannot finish discussing them in 100 pages. Let me just say overthinking throws you into a dark abyss where your thoughts slowly strangle you. It makes you bear the mental weight of a dozen people at once and extinguishes any optimism within you. The stress that follows is one of the worst forms of stress a human being can endure. You may lose your identity, confidence, and esteem permanently if you do not take immediate action against overthinking. When you can no longer shut down the voices in your head, your mind is filled with way too much noise for you to hear your voice and needs.