There is a famous saying that overthinking is the art of creating new problems out of ones that never existed in the first place. This line itself explains the whole problem of overthinking. Before dealing with how to stop overthinking, we need to understand why it happens in the first place. We need to accept that it is normal to think and then overthink because our mind is a constant flow of never-ending thoughts. We cannot stop ourselves from thinking because, after all, that is what makes us human. What we can do is, we can gain control over our thinking process and use it for our benefit rather than leaving it uncontrolled like a wild horse.

The first step is to filter our thoughts into positive and negative, belief and reality, controllable and uncontrollable. 

Positive and Negative thoughts–

There is so much going around the power of positive thinking nowadays. I believe that positive thinking can at least give you a sense of assurance and peace. The least we can do is keep our positive thoughts and let go of our negative ones. I cannot say that just by positive thinking one can achieve their desired result, but at least they can achieve peace by not overthinking about the negative side of the scenario. 

Belief and Reality-

The majority of our thoughts can be divided into what we believe and what is the reality. Majorly we keep thinking about the things that, according to us, can be the reality but they are just our beliefs. The best way to tackle this problem is to communicate rather than thinking about it continuously in our minds. For example, if you are thinking that your partner is not able to give you sufficient time that they used to give you before. So here either you can keep imagining why is this happening ‘do they not love me anymore’, ‘is someone else in their life and so on or you can just directly tell them what you are thinking and focus on the real problem so that you both can work it out together. 

Remember, communication is the key solution to most overthinking-related problems.

Controllable and Uncontrollable-

We need to understand that not everything is in our control and thinking about something which we cannot control can never benefit us. For example, we keep on thinking about what our result will be after giving any exam. So here we need to understand that giving our best shot in the exam was in our control now, and whatever our result will be is not in our control. So we need to leave something on time and God to decide. 

Now practicing all these can be very difficult for anyone. So practically the best possible ways to implement the above ideas can be-

• Meditation can decrease the flow of thoughts in your mind and can make you relax. It is the best way to control the flow of thoughts and achieve peace in the long run.

• Most of our thoughts come when we are trying to sleep at night. So we can practice reading a book or listening to songs just before going to sleep but we should avoid using cell phones at that time. 

At last, I want to say that real happiness lies within our mind, and for attaining that level of happiness and contentment, we need to first clear our mind of all the negative thoughts that we have been storing in it for decades. In this way, we can easily conquer the habit of Overthinking.

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Granth Goyal is currently pursuing Chartered Accountancy and my Bachelors Degree.

“I am very fond of writing, I see it as a way to express myself and a way to escape from all the stress of studies. I had also been published in the Students Journal of ‘The Institute Of Chartered Accountants Of India’.”

Email- granthgoyal@gmail.com

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