How to Stop Overthinking

One of the most pervasive symptoms of mood disorders, like anxiety and depression, can be the onslaught of negative thoughts that seem to follow you around like an invisible specter. Trying to engage in daily activities can become cumbersome when the voice in your head is telling you that you are not good enough and reminding you of all the things that you have failed to do. Living with this inner critic is exhausting! Learning how to master this voice inside your head is a key tool in coping with your anxiety. Here are two tools to get you started on quieting the chatter of an anxious brain:

MINDFULNESS

Mindfulness techniques are great ways to help you detach from your thoughts. When you struggle with anxiety, you start to believe that your thoughts are reality and must always be true. However, you are not defined by your thoughts. Often, our negative thoughts aren’t actually how we think or feel about ourselves but formed by past experiences and interactions with others. For example, if you had a critical parent who was always negatively commenting on your appearance, then you may start to develop a voice in your head that is also criticizing your looks. This voice did not innately come from you. It developed over time due to experiences you had with a formative person in your life. Just because this voice exists, does not mean that this voice is everlasting or true. Engaging with mindfulness techniques can allow you to further develop this lens of separation of your reality from your negative thoughts.

Leaves On a Stream:

 One of these mindfulness techniques is leaves on a stream. For this exercise, you imagine a running stream with leaves flowing on it. You place your thoughts on the stream and imagine them floating away. If you do this exercise with a clinician, they may dive deeper into your experience with it, but for your personal use, imagining your thoughts flowing away on this stream for five to ten minutes is a good starting point. Leaves on a stream helps to remind you that your thoughts are temporary and do not need to be held in sharp focus, especially when they are no longer serving you. 

Progressive Muscle Relaxation:

A second helpful technique for the overthinkers out there is progressive muscle relaxation. This exercise is more somatic than a typical mindfulness or visualization exercise and involves the full body. Our mind and body are very connected, so engaging the body can help provide stress relief and healthy distraction for the mind. During progressive muscle relaxation, you engage in a head to toe body scan. During this body scan, you tense certain muscle groups for a varied period of time and then relax these muscle groups. Going from a state of intense tension in the body to complete relaxation increases feelings of relaxation and stress release. Along with this, your awareness is fully focused on your body during this exercise, which helps to clear the mind of anxious thoughts. This technique can sometimes be tricky to master on your own, so also working on this exercise with a therapist is highly recommended!

Interested in learning about more ways to cope with your anxiety and overthinking? Schedule an appointment with one of our clinicians at Space to Reflect!

Written by Jasmine Aggarwal, MA