End of Overthinking

HOOK

Have you ever found yourself stuck in an endless cycle of thoughts

with no escape, If so, congratulations you are Suffering from
Overthinking
But what exactly is overthinking? why do we do it even when it hurts
us and what are some simple yet highly unused techniques by which
you can stop Overthinking?

So, stay tuned for the Entire Video, Because Overthinking might not
be what you expect it to be

BODY

Before solving Overthinking, you should understand What exactly is

Overthinking and why do we Overthink?
Because you cannot solve what you cannot understand
So Overthinking is just constant thinking about a situation or a topic
with no course of action or solution to get out of it rather just
creating an illusion of it

Think of Overthinking as a piece of Mental Chewing Gum which has

lost its flavour and you keep on chewing the same thing again and
again hoping that it will give you some flavour but in reality it is just
tiring your mouth

Sub - Hook
But why exactly do we overthink ? And Why do 73% of young people
in the United States overthink, while only 20% of older people
experience overthinking ?

Explanation
So to understand this you need to know about your Mind And
Attentional Space

Lets say your mind is like a smartphone, equipped with its own RAM
called attentional space, which processes thoughts and information
in the present moment. Now Overthinking can be said as opening of
multiple apps at once, exceeding the current limit of your phone
which leads to battery drainage or slowing down of performance.
Similarly, in your mind, entertaining multiple thoughts
simultaneously can lead to chaos and energy loss.

But why is it that younger people are more prone to overthinking

than older people?
The answer lies in their attentional space. See as people grow older,
their attentional space diminishes, or their 'RAM' reduces. And with
reduced RAM, their brain's processor must use the available
resources for necessary processing. therefore, older people become
less distracted and are less vulnerable because they don’t have extra
resources to Overthink ."

Now Overthinking is not necessarily a good or a bad thing, it depends

on what you are thinking about and how it affects you, you can use
productive overthinking and systematically approach your problems
and solve them or you can think about the same thing in a loop and
suffer from a Anxiety and Depression which is a form of Unproductive
Overthinking

Now a majority of people either Overthink about their Past Or their

upcoming Future

Sub - Hook

But why do they do that and what exactly triggers the Overthinking
loop?

Explanation

So the answer lies in your mind, See in the ancient time your brain
(and mind) was designed to keep you alive and ensure your Survival,
and it does that perfectly, but now in this current age We don’t need
our extreme survival instincts because we have created an
environment around ourselves that is generally Safer and Predictable
and there's no Wild animal in the bush waiting to prey on us.
but your Mind doesn’t understand this because it is hard wired for
thousands of years by nature to keep you alive
Now you might be wondering what is the relation between your
overthinking and that wild animal in the bush, but there is.
see when you are faced with a really painful or traumatizing event
like getting heart broken or seeing your friends getting eaten by a
wild animal (in ancient times) that memory of yours stays with you
forever because it is a highly emotionalized memory
and now the mind knows how terrible it feels when that happens
And because it cares for you it doesn’t want you to feel the same
thing again
so, what will it do?
your mind will innocently put you into Overthinking mode to analyse
the past events, hoping to get new insights which will increase the
chances of your survival and that's because it (your mind) is scared of
the unknown in the future and it wants control over its future which
is perfectly fine
But problem occurs when we are stuck thinking or ruminating about
same thing without reaching any conclusion or solution
Think of it as a Hole in your Stomach no matter how much water you
drink it will never fill

Sub - Hook
Does that mean you can never solve your Overthinking problem?

Explanation

So, the answer is neither black nor white its somewhere in the Grey
Area
See you should not try to control your overthinking because
1st not every form of Overthinking is bad and
2nd is that you can’t stop overthinking Completely But you can
Reduce the negative effects it has on you

Now there are some Ways by which you can reduce you Overthinking
out of which

First is learning about the sources of overthinking because if you

don’t know where it's coming from then it is as good as filling water
in a bucket with a hole in the bottom

Sub - Hook
So from where exactly does this Overthinking Comes from?

Explanation

To Understand this

Imagine you really love cheeseburgers, but eating too many at once
gives you a severe stomach-ache, causing chaos inside. So What's the
first thing you'd do? You Stop eating, right? Similarly, when your mind
is in chaos from overthinking, the most sensible thing is to stop
feeding it the thoughts that are causing that chaos.

Sub - Hook
But what are the sources of these thoughts?

Explanation
So There are mainly two factors contributing to these thoughts: your
Physical environment and your Digital environment.

Your physical environment can expose you to environmental

stressors, such as chaotic spaces, as well as social pressures, such as
insecurities and comparisons to your friends

And your digital environment can expose you to information overload

and triggering content

All of this mental Food can easily pull you deep into an overthinking
loop without you even realizing it

Second thing is Understanding that Your brain is Trying to fool you

Now you may say why would it do that and when has it fooled me ?

So to understand this you have to take a look at yourself , Do you

remember that moment when you were trying to study but random
thoughts appeared in your mind and before you knew that you were
distracted you had already wasted around 30 minutes in overthinking
Now why does this happen?
It happens because your brain is lazy it doesn’t want to do hard work
and it will try many cheap tricks to avoid hard work like distracting
you and once you get distracted by your thoughts there is a high
chance that you will fall into an Overthinking loop
now to get out of this loop you have to do a basic thing which is

Becoming Aware

Now this really sounds Very basic and your mind will go like I already
know that,
But there's a difference between knowing and Understanding

So next time when you are in an overthinking loop and the moment
consciousness strikes, you should stop whatever you are doing, Sit or
stand Straight
And do this 3 Things
First is Acknowledge that you are Overthinking and explain yourself
that this will not lead you anywhere instead will only create chaos

Second is to Move your body because research has found out that
even a 10 min walk can relax your brain and release Happy hormones
like endorphins
And Last thing is to Postpone the Overthinking for another time and
focus on what’s really important at the current moment
But As said Earlier that you are not always Aware that you are
Overthinking because sometimes it can be really subtle and smooth
for you to catch on
So, to solve this you can rely on external stimulus like setting an
alarm clock or an Decreasing Timer So there will be an constant
reminder in front of your eyes That will tell you that you are slipping
off

Now though you are Mainly Overthinking about Past and future more
There are some stressful moments when you overthink about the
present moment
For example most of the people get really nervous and anxious when
they have to speak in front of 100 or a 1000 people or if They have to
perform good in any sports event like swimming, or Running
and the amount of stress this situation creates can alter your
performance while doing that task

So, there's a Simple technique for this Called

5-4-3-2-1 Grounding technique

but what exactly is this grounding technique? and why should you
use it?
So, you need to understand that what you are doing by applying this
technique is distracting yourself and giving your mind something else
to focus on so it does not create Anxiety and Stress
So the next time when you Feel Anxiety and Panic spiralling out of
control

Try this:

Stop Whatever you are doing And Find 5 things that you can see, you
can look for any 5 things in your Surrounding it can be your hand,
that spinning fan, any 5 things

Second thing is try to find 4 things around you that you can Feel or
Touch, Feel the chair you are sitting on, feel the device you are
holding , it can be any 4 things

Third thing is to find 3 things you can Hear , it can be chirping of

birds, any distant voices

Next thing to look for is 2 things that you can smell, now this can be
tricky at first
but nearly everything has a smell, if you pay attention .Can you
smell the Soap on your skin or maybe smell of paper on your desk ?

And finally find one thing that you can taste Maybe the lingering
taste of coffee in your mouth and if you can’t find anything just try to
observe what your taste buds are sensing
And the reason why this technique works is because your mind is
excellent at jumping between past, present, and future, but when it
comes to your body, it cannot just time travel into the past or jump
into the future. For your body, it always remains in the present

You Can think of Your body as an anchor and your mind as the ship
and by using the technique what you are doing is Anchoring your
mind by using your body so that it doesn’t drift away in Overthinking

Now just knowing that you are Overthinking is not enough you
should know exactly what you are overthinking about

Is it any past regret or memory?

Is it Any person that you are Attached to?
or is it the upcoming Future that you are worried about?

And once you find out what you are overthinking about
you should start the Next Step which is Journaling

Now you may Already know about journaling and thinking of

Skipping this part
but it’s just your mind playing with you
and you should not get influenced by it.
Because by the process of Writing down your thoughts, emotions,
experiences and every single Nagging concern ,you are doing
something what is called Cognitive Offloading
Or to put it simply you are removing load from your mind and your
mind feels light
This can be explained by using an example

let’s say I asked you what is 7x6, many of you would immediately
come up with the answer which is 42.
However, if I asked you what is 237x341, nearly every one of you may
find yourself reaching for a pen and paper. But if I questioned why,
you didn't calculate it mentally, you'd say it’s because it is much more
complex, requiring careful steps to solve.
But surprisingly, when it comes to your own life problems, you often
try to solve them mentally, even when they're more complicated
than math problems
therefore, it is really important to write what you constantly
overthink about including every small detail
but now many questions arise with this like
What if someone reads my journal?
Should I really write the name of the person I’m overthinking about?
so, the answer to these questions is that you can always write
whatever you want and then burn that paper and feel your problems
burning with that paper, and if you repeat this process enough times
the problems you are facing will loosen their grip over you
By the way the answer to that problem is 80817

Next thing you should Understand is to Never forcefully try to control

Overthinking because the more you try to control the more it jumps
around

For example,
let’s say I told you to imagine a pink elephant eating a Chocolate
flavoured ice cream using his trunk while standing on a wooden stool
you can take your time and imagine it
now once only if you have imagined it try you best not to remember
it no matter what
you should never think about that elephant your whole day
You got my Point?
It is nearly impossible to not think about that pink elephant you can
only stop this elephant when you are either sleeping or you are in a
state of deep work 24 hours a day which is not possible

Sub - Hook

but why does this happen? why can’t you forget that elephant ?

Explanation
It happens because you are trying to control it and the more you are
trying to not think about it the more you are thinking about it
indirectly and more the thought grips you
So how Can you forget about the pink elephant
And the answer is that you can’t, you cannot forget about the
elephant now and the only solution you have is to accept and
acknowledge the elephant the more you will try to forget it the more
Value you are giving it
and same goes for your thoughts
every thought in your mind asks for your attention but only a few are
worth paying attention to
because you are not your mind, or your thoughts you are just a
observer
so next time thoughts emerge in your mind always remember that
thoughts are neither good or bad
it’s what you’re thinking about that thought that gives it meaning

Outro
So to truly stop Overthinking you must not resist it but just Accept
and Observe it see you in the next Video
And sorry for the pink elephant now it’s going to stay with you