We humans have been blessed with the power to think and using that power, we have managed to become the dominant species on the planet and have transformed ourselves from cave dwelling nomads to the modern day homo sapiens.
This power however, is like drinking. Do it in moderation and you will be jolly. Overdo it and your whole life will become one huge hangover and you will go through life like a drunkard, in a total zig zag manner!
Overthinking is the bane of existence of quite a number of people. If you happen to be one or know one, you know what I am talking about. From the smallest of things to the biggest, your entire life becomes one giant puzzle and a complete struggle.
Let me tell you exactly what I mean by taking examples of everyday things and how overthinking complicates them.
You Think More You Do Less
You know what overthinkers spend most of their time doing? You guessed it…… Thinking!! They think so much about the littlest of things, about stuff that doesn’t matter at all, that they have a lot less amount of time actually doing those things. Then they start overthinking about how they have little time and waste even more time!!
Sleep Becomes A Disaster
Normal people go to bed and fall asleep within a few minutes. Not an overthinker though. As soon as you hit the bed, your mind starts wandering off to just about anywhere. You start remembering all the embarrassing things you did that day or even 5 years ago.
You start worrying about all the stuff you have to do the next day. And then there are the deep questions like, does the universe have an end? Is life real? What is its meaning? Is your grandma actually an alien, disguising as a human?? Before you know it, it’s already 3 A.M.
Decisions Are Really Tough
So, if you are an overthinker, you will analyse every possible angle before making a decision. For example, if you want to choose a pizza topping, you will literally go through all the options at least thrice before choosing one, by which time, the waiter is done with you and has moved on to other customers. Dang it!!
You Try To Find Hidden Meaning In Everything
So, you are chatting with someone you like and instead of the usual three laughing emojis, they only send two. As an overthinker, you immediately start trying to find meaning behind the lack of that one emoji. Is she mad at me, is she ok? Maybe she’s bored and wants the chat to end. What if she’s trying to send me a secret code that she is in danger and requires my help?? Facepalm
Relationships Are… Complicated
Human beings can be weird and relationships can be a lot weirder. Therefore you can only imagine the struggles of an overthinker in this regard. Since they tend to over-analyse, it can be really difficult to navigate a relationship as they are dissecting every little thing with their brains. I mean there can be a 100 different reasons why she didn’t pick up your call, right? How do you know which one is it??
Compartmentalising Is Impossible
We all have these different spheres of life that are completely separate from each other and most people are able to handle them separately. Not an overthinker though. If there is something wrong with some part of his life, it will affect all the other parts as well. Because he just can’t stop thinking about it! Damn brain just won’t shut up!
Usually overthinkers are good at hiding what’s bothering them, and so other people don’t notice it as they might look calm from the outside. But inside of them, there’s a storm raging, a storm of thoughts after thoughts after thoughts….. You get the point :)
They Can’t Live In The Moment
We have all heard that the best way to live life is to live in the moment and to enjoy the smallest of happiness and to just appreciate life on a deeper level. This is something that an overthinker just can’t do.
I mean they are time travellers in a sense as they always exist in the future, trying to figure out their next moves and the ones after that and before you know it, they have planned their entire lives! Ahh, it’s so tiring being an overthinker, I tell you!!
There's also the negative aspect of preventing yourself from doing things by overthinking them.
For admittedly odd, psychological reasons, humans get some of the same satisfaction they get from DOING a thing by TALKING about that thing, even if that is an internal monologue.
An ounce of doing remains worth at least a pound of pontification.
Yes, totally agreed!!
So when did I give you permission to do a blog on my mind? Damn. Thanks for not citing my name at least. It is nice to be autonomous but yet know you are being written about. If only I was not born with owl tendencies. Why could I have not been a panther or peacock instead. Even a dolphin would have been nice but no!! I had to be a thinker. Hell i even thought out how to write this comment. I need a life man. I doubt if anyone will upvote this comment but sure did enjoy the analytical intercourse I had with a written blog. LOL
hhahahha Looks like we have the same brains brother!!! And thanks for the chuckle. :)
Dear god, this is my girlfriend. Her brain is like a hoarder's house. It's all mess and chaos.
hahaha, I can be like this sometimes too. Then I need to take a breath and stop all the thoughts.
I am overthinker. I have so many thoughts. I worry about things that haven't even happened yet and maybe never will. "What if" seems to be my favorite thought..
Not easy to be overthinker. Should think more about the present and not worry about the past and future.
"What if" seems to be my favorite thought to. It is literally attached to all future scenarios!! hahaha
I sleep rare but when I sleep I sleep as a rock.
haha lucky you are! :P
Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.
- Mahatma Gandhi
And since this is rarely the case, within the normality of human conditioning, what you get is the opposite, namely, depression.
That's correct.
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Thanks!!
It definitely can be difficult to draw limits on our thinking. On one-side we want our mind to explore and penetrate depths of knowledge and awareness. On the other hand, the complexities are unending, as well as the perspectives, so we can drive ourselves to stressful distraction if we cannot relax and find peace in daily routines as well. There seems to be a way to realize the absurdity of life and laugh about it, but then also do your best each day to make a positive difference. It's like a game that you enjoy for the challenge but don't worry about winning or losing... it's about the experience we can say. Peace
Yeah, the mind is a double edged sword. Use wisely or you will cut yourself hehe
Upvote
Thanks!
I think that you think too much...lol!
I think you are right! :P
I suffer from this too on occasions. I'd tend to consider all angles and their permutations, and spend a lot of time thinking and thinking. This is not necessarily a bad thing. But it sometimes lead to being indecisive when action is needed.
One of the ways I try to overcome this is to only think about the basics. Like "Will this result in something better, possibly make things worse, or not much impact?" And then just do it.
No point sweating out the small stuff. But it's very hard to not overthink when faced with situations where a wrong decision would have significant negative consequences.
That's an excellent advice and one that I have used time and again myself too. Basically instead of worrying about a decision, we just need to decide whether it's good or not. That's it.
"Balance"..."Moderately"..."Take the middle path" - these should be the way. Including with the tendency to overthink. But it's easier said than done. There's also the matter of habit - overthinking and overanalysing - which requires consistent effort to change.
That is good questions to ask yourself!
Everything has to do with society today, often this type of behavior is generated by the anxiety of wanting to reach a goal that is almost utopian, so you live thinking about how to get there even if you do not do much to get there , it is real thought to live the present as if there was no future, but that way of thinking is for someone who has life resolute and does not have to worry about anything but living and experiencing, in underdeveloped countries where thoughts are centered in that at the end of the day there must be a plate of food on the table this way of living a day is impossible, because the concern is always latent, thank you very much for sharing, it is a great post because it can open a great debate and a conversation very rich. Greetings.
yeah, thats true
I agree with everything you said. It's a really fresh way of looking at this and I admire that :)
Yes, these are many struggles
true!!
yes
I used to be an overthinker and also suffered with anxiety! I now take meds which helps to calm me down and although I can't create 6 business plans from scratch in a day anymore out of nothing, I can enjoy sitting in the garden listening to the birds and love going for long quiet walks in the woods with my dogs :)
Yeah, it can be just too much to handle for the brain and at the end of the day, we need to look for remedies. Its good that it is working out for you :)
Stop thinking, start doing. Imperfect action is always better than perfect action.
Yeah, or you could also say that some action is better than no action at all.
That's right @sauravrungta
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STOPGreat, just great! Now I'll be thinking about being an over thinker all day. Damn
hahahah Struggles of being an overthinker right!!! ;)
Such a good post 👍🏼
They say overthinkers are creative geniuses & could be linked to High IQ
Upvoted & resteemed
Thanks! Yes, overthinkers do tend to be highly creative and with high IQ or else the brain wouldn't be able to function at that level of thought.
correct :)
This is very well experienced that if we over think before any task we couldn't start or if we start we couldn't complete that task, because of so many negativity about that.
Thanks for sharing such a nice article. 💐
Thanks for the kind words and I agree :)
Wow..... This is a huge problem for me. An amazing article! Thanks for writing it
Yeah, me too!! Thanks for reading :)
I do agree that being an overthinker is bad...upvoted:)
Yeah, it's horrible!! haha
omgsh! I just wrote an article about this very topic. Mine is advice on how to stop overthinking.
Not being able to live in the moment is the worst. Imagine you go your whole life like this, reminds me of the movie Click.
Oh and the hidden meaning... I use to do that when I had crushes on boys. OH MAN! what a waste of time! LOL
Yeah, not being able to live in the moment is a real curse. Many people suffer from it. A lot of the times I do too!
Same, I love to plan for the future! Staying present takes a lot of practice!
i know i over think, and this is just like a write up for me, but the only thing is, it takes me just few seconds to sleep so means i sleep well. anyways its a lovely piece, thanks for sharing
Well at least you have the sleep thing going on for you. Not all are lucky like you hahaha
Most time, people fail to put a distinction between the "thin blue line" of thinking and worrying. Also, thinking should be accompanied by a complimentary action in the right direction. Nice piece sir
Oh yes, the overthinking quickly becomes worrying and sometimes it is difficult to tell which we are doing!!
It is a compounding effect. I just spin my wheels sometimes.
Two things I love to do are riding my motorcycle and reading books. And the two are polar opposites when it comes to thinking.
Books require the reader to think a lot. A book is wasted if you just skim through it without absorbing and reflecting on it.
Motorcycles require the rider to act and not waste time thinking. On the road you do not have the time to think, decisions need to be made in quick time.
And therein lay my problem, if I read too much, I couldn't ride properly, if I rode too much, I could barely read three pages at a stretch.
It was frustrating.
Finally I started carrying a book with me whenever I rode. Would stop my bike and immediately start reading. Gradually conditioned the brain to be able to switch on and off. From thinking to doing and back...
I know a couple of these kind of people. Great post. 🐓🐓
haha guilty as charged! I've honestly struggled with this since the very beginning. It's difficult to re- frame the way you process and internalize information. I heard "cbt" (cognitive behavioural therapy) can help break the vicious cycle by replacing those thoughts with something else :)