Congratulations on downloading this book and thank you for doing so.
The following chapters will discuss what it means to overthink and what you can do to change it. You will learn about the symptoms of overthinking and how it affects your day-to-day life, before going on a step-by-step journey to alleviate the stress of overthinking and negative thought processes.
Many people overanalyze and overthink every aspect of their lives, whether its their jobs, their relationships, lack of fulfillment, or a constant stream of stress. All of these struggles seem inevitable in a normal life, and if you look around, people seem to have accepted that life and stress and negativity will always be connected, even in the best-case scenarios.
Forming good habits like mindfulness meditation, positive relationships, and adequate sleep will lead you to a place where the negative habits that lead to overthinking fall away. From poisonous relationships to a cluttered living space, shedding the things that hold you back will give way to a whole new you, ready to meet lifes challenges with a mind filled with positive thoughts and meaningful goals. It is my hope that by working every day to form better habits, you will come to realize your full potential without feeling like overthinking is an inevitable part of life. You can take back control!
There are plenty of books on this subject on the market, thanks again for choosing this one! Every effort was made to ensure it is full of as much useful information as possible, please enjoy!
Chapter 1: What is Overthinking?
How many times in the past have you heard a coworker, a boss, or a loved one say the words, stop overthinking it? Maybe the question has been directed at you in the past, and youve responded with something like, Im not sure what you mean, or I dont know if youre thinking through it enough .
Many times, communication is one of the main factors in the misunderstandings that occur between people in relationships. We say one thing, but it is understood in a different way. This complication is made worse when we fall into the habit of overthinking, which is simply taking in and processing way more information than is necessary to complete a given task or figure out a problem. When we pull from a much larger pool of information than is necessary for what we are trying to do, whether its something as simple as picking out the appropriate tie or deciding whether to break up with that new boyfriend, we are guilty of overthinking and often make the task much harder on ourselves than it needs to be.
All those thoughts swirling around in your brain make even the simplest tasks difficult because it becomes nearly impossible to avoid distraction. Overthinking can lead to an emotionally damaging mindset, where you begin to think negatively about yourself, your loved ones, or even about the world. Too much negativity and worry in your mind will shut out any hope of positive thinking or finding the path toward becoming a more positive, productive person.
I am excited to take this journey with you, and I know that you are about to discover many things about yourself as a person. The simple fact that youve sought out help from this book is an important first step forward. Many people continue through their entire lives living with the chaos going on inside their minds while they try to seek out a pleasant existence. But were going much further than this. Were going to shed that old chaotic mindset and find the path to clarity.
The title of this book refers to finding a path through the noise inside your mind, but were not just going to walk casually by and leave the chaos where it is. Many people are very skilled at something called compartmentalization. This is where, in order to deal with many sources of stress, worry, and overthinking, people will carefully store different thought processes in different parts of their brains and train themselves to ignore one thing while they concentrate on another. Many men and women experience this after a trauma. In order to escape the grief, they will concentrate on something that is productive, like their jobs, and not think about the pain that must be worked through.
Compartmentalization is an avoidance of the problem, and though it can be helpful in traumatic experiences, it is essential to address what is going on in our minds if we are to move past it. So, if youre ready, lets get started!
Chapter 2: What Causes Overthinking?
There are many, many causes of overthinking, many catalysts that trigger the bad habits of overthinking which can lead to anxiety and excessive worrying. These are not pleasant emotions, and what can seem like simply being careful and thinking things through can easily turn into something much more serious and damaging.
Weve all experienced worry at some point in our lives. I remember when I was a child, my mother would leave the house very early in the morning to go to work at the post office, and I would wake up just as she was walking out the door and feel a desperate need to run out to the front door and catch her so I could say goodbye and I love you. This didnt last long, but I remember for a few nights I was overcome by the worry that she was going to leave the house and I would never see her again. This is easily attributable to me being a young child but let us think about another example.
You are an adult, and your older brother is flying out to Colorado for a ski trip with his friends. Hes just turned 21, and you know that there is going to be a good deal of partying and drinking going on. Now you start worrying about all the things that could happen. What if he gets in an accident driving around an unfamiliar area? Would he be tempted to drink and drive? What if he falls while skiing and breaks a leg or an arm? What if he runs into a tree and has a concussion and he goes to a hospital and I dont know about it because he doesnt have his phone andandand
Okay, so this is an extreme case of acute worry, but Im sure you know what Im talking about and have experienced something similar concerning a loved one. To throw a wrench in the works, lets say you just watched a video on Facebook where someone ran right into a tree while skiing a few days ago. Now you have this mental image to feed those worries running through your mind like a broken record. Perhaps you saw a story about a car accident in Colorado caused by bad weather, and now you have that worry going through your mind.