Overthinking: the art of creating problems that were never there in the first place.
I need to join ‘OVERTHINKERS ANONYMOUS.’
The first thing that I began to overthink here was the word OVERTHINKERS….. IS IT ONE WORD OR IS TWO? OR IS IT HYPHENATED?
Good golly. What a way to start to my blog on overthinking…
Apparently, most people prefer it as one word; however, it is ok to hyphenate it and/or make it into two words.
I am an overthinker. I have trouble controlling that trait in me. My thoughts often run rampant and I have trouble collecting them into a nice, neat little package in my mind.
I can come up with several scenarios in my mind all the time. I have been told that is a trait of creative people. We often want something so badly that we create things that make us think that there is a huge problem. Or we think that our idea is unmanageable, too crazy or too difficult to carry through with.
Overthinking creates anxiety, stress, and stops you from seeing the positive and the good in the situation. Overthinking destroys your happiness. Overthinking can create problems that were never there in the first place. It can make things much worse that they really are.
We don’t have to have an answer for everything we encounter. If we mess up or miss an opportunity we should learn from the situation. Worrying about things that can go wrong won’t make them go right anyway. We must learn that we cannot control everything that happens in our lives.
Overthinking can feed our insecurities and our ego at the same time. It can destroy our sense of confidence in ourselves. Overthinking can create 100 problems in our minds, and we have to understand that most likely only one of them could possibly come true. That leaves the other 99 that are just thoughts.
Overthinking will be the ruin of ourselves if we allow it.
We begin to worry about what can go wrong instead of thinking about all the positive possibilities. Worrying about things that can go wrong doesn’t help our outcomes one little bit. It only creates self-doubt and makes things much worse than they really are. When we realize that we have control over the way we think, we can end the overthinking and get on with what we want to do.
This quote sums up worry. “Worrying is like sitting in a rocking chair. It gives you something to do but it doesn’t get you anywhere.” Unknown
Overthinkers second guess everything. We analyze things constantly. We even expect the worst sometimes. Some of us even are quite critical and expect way too much from ourselves and others.
Remember we don’t have to control our thoughts; we only have to stop letting our thoughts control us.
One of the biggest obstacles in our path is our minds. If the problem is solvable, then why worry about it? If it’s not, then why worry about it?
I’m still learning to let go of negative thoughts and I’m still learning to be easier on myself. I do know in my heart that I must learn to just let it go.
The key to being happy is to let go of what we cannot control and allow the situation to be what it is instead of what we think it should be.
I have realized that I need to remind myself every day to stop overthinking things. Just allow things to be what they are.
Buddha said, ‘Overthinking is the biggest cause of unhappiness.’