Depth of thinking is a sign of your natural ability for deep processing and attention to detail.
This is a gift, which may be used to your advantage in life, and in handling any situation that comes your way. However, it might sometimes feel like you're stuck in a never-ending cycle of thoughts, branching out into potentially unnecessary details and creative scenarios.
In that case, overthinking each potential outcome or situation might make your mind feel like a busy hive.
Here are a few tools to help you manage overthinking:
• Writing & Mind Dumping: Creatives often carry notebooks. Writing down your thoughts, feelings and experiences helps to clear your mind. Whether it is an idea, something needing done or an emotion that keeps revolving in your head, writing it down helps to name it and externalize it… or even dump it for good. By storing it in our notebook, we create space for fresh ideas in our mind and reduce mental clutter. We suggest you pick a paper or digital notebook to take with you wherever you go. If it is difficult for you to start, you can put in place a practice, for instance taking ten minutes every evening, or every week-end, to write down your thoughts.
• Time Limits: If you tend to go over the same ideas repeatedly, we invite you to cultivate an awareness of this pattern. When you catch yourself going round in circles with no results, gently bring your attention back to the moment. Although most psychologists will agree that we have to sit with our feelings and ideas at some point, there can be a fine line with obsessively overthinking. Sometimes the best way to get clarity is to seek a different input, through an activity that nourishes you. Evaluate whether your thinking is helpful or to the contrary unhelpful to discern between those situations.
• Seek Perspective: Discussing your thoughts and feelings with a trusted friend to gain new insights can help you to break the cycle. Their perspective on your thoughts might help you shift your own perspective and find clarity.
• Grounding: Grounding helps us to get out of our heads, by planting our feet more firmly into the ground and connecting with the present moment and our surroundings. Grounding yourself in the present may be obtained by various practices. There are short exercises to implement in the moment that will benefit from regular practice if you are a chronic overthinker.
Eating well is the backbone of grounding.
Connecting to the earth and being in nature, walking barefoot, taking a walk or being still and observing your surroundings provides grounding.
Dancing, and in particular dance styles working on the lower part of the body, like African and Brazilian styles, help connect to the earth, by literally stomping.
There are many ways to find grounding, as long as you find a way to get closer to the earth. If you are in an office on the 40th floor, it might be as easy as coming back down to earth level for a moment.
Overthinking Messages
Overthinkers might re-write and proofread their emails and messages, as they try to find the right words and tone. Accepting that it’s OK to send an imperfect message and that we all occasionally make mistakes, will help you move forward. Here are a few tips to handle overthinking messages:
Take a break: You just can’t press send and get done with it? Wait. If the situation allows, give yourself some time, and come back to it later, when you are feeling more centered.
Recognize possible fears: There might be hidden layers of emotional baggage behind the overthinking. Identify any fears that may be at play: are you afraid of being rejected, criticized, or judged? Naming these fears is the first step to learning to manage them.
Don’t be afraid to be yourself with all your imperfections.
