Stop yourself from overthinking

I am in the habit of overthinking situations that make me feel bad or uncomfortable, despite that not being a solution to anything.

I often find myself thinking about something that happened weeks ago, something that upset me, in an attempt to imagine what I should have said to someone or how I should have behaved, thinking it will help me in some way.

It usually doesn't.

From what I know, overthinking is something a lot of people do, out of a desire to learn how to deal with hard situations, or even find answers and solutions to their questions or problems.

For example, a guy may spend a lot of time overthinking a rejection from a girl, trying to figure out if he did something wrong, if the way he looks was the reason why the girl rejected him, if his financial state is to blame, if he doesn't know how to talk properly to others, if he isn't attractive because of his behavior, and so on.

Another example would be a girl who didn't get a job after doing well in an interview, who can spend days thinking about what she did, if her skills aren't enough, if she was discriminated for being a woman, if she said something bad, or if her behavior made her seem like she's irresponsible, and so on.

While thinking about those things may look useful, overthinking them will almost always lead to nothing. You're usually gonna spend too much time trying to analyze a situation, never being happy with your conclusion and always focusing on the past and what you did wrong, instead of trying to change little things here and there.

Yes, spending hours and hours thinking about certain situations can help every now and then, but it usually doesn't. It's just a huge waste of time that leads to nothing, unless you're capable of stopping yourself and come to a conclusion that you may like or not, then switch your attention to something different.

All that sounds obvious, but it's something a lot of people don't think about, and they find themselves overthinking things without knowing why or how to stop.

I myself started noticing that I do this a little too much lately, spending too much time thinking about what I'm saying in my articles and if the content I'm creating is good enough. I'm not actually making progress, I'm not criticizing my work in a constructive way, I just put doubts in my own mind about whether I should use a word or not, a phrase or another one, or if the way I try to form a sentence will make sense or not.

The only way I manage to stop myself and focus on what's important, is to become aware of what I'm doing and to try to actively focus on something else, something useful, while switching to a way of thinking that can actually help me with something.

It takes time, of course, but doing that usually helps me get out of that overthinking state and instead do something with my time. If I need to analyze my work or anything in my life, I can easily do it consciously, with a pen and a piece of paper, without spending hours just thinking about one single topic.

Try to become a little more aware of the things you think about on a daily basis, and if you find that overthinking is something you do too much and too often, then do your best to focus your attention on something else, even related to the thing you were overthinking, trying to come up with an actual solution and ways to improve things in your life, instead of just wasting hours feeling like you're doing anything.