you ever find yourself constantly thinking in circles you finally have a moment to yourself peace and quiet except no peace because your brain just won't stop it's stressing you out so you fill the Silence with music podcasts time with other friends or other higher risk ways to slow it down and numb the thoughts or maybe you have a project idea you want to start a YouTube channel maybe write a book or start that small business you're always talking about you've been thinking about it for weeks months even every little detail anything that might need to
be thought through you've thought about it but what you haven't done is take action this is overthinking overthinking can be a huge obstacle to both our well-being and our goals in life put simply overthinking is the act of dwelling on certain thoughts or constantly anticipating a situation or its possible outcome it could look like rehashing previous conversations reliving past events or even overthinking future events and imagining things going wrong overthinking can leave you mentally exhausted it can produce anxiety tension and even health issues in the long run in this video we'll explore how to identify
overthinking the causes types and effects it can have and finally we'll share valuable tips on how to set yourself free from the overthinking trap signs of overthinking if you've been wondering if you're overthinking a situation or concern there are a few signs you can watch out for these include an inability to stop thinking about one thing feeling tense and unable to relax fixating on things outside of your control replaying past conversations and scenarios in your head over planning future events second guessing your decisions and flip-flopping between different options thinking of the worst case scenario and
over planning how to deal with it even when it hasn't happened all of these signs as well as feeling anxious or mentally exhausted can be signs of overthinking so why do we overthink overthinking is rooted in uncertainty becomes a part of our brain that wants to solve problems and minimize danger or failure from an evolutionary perspective our Primal monkey brain would need to problem solve in order to stay alive and keep our family alive nowadays we don't need to do that as much but we still have the basic brain structure neurotransmitters and mechanisms in place
that means that many of us are predisposed to overthink another reason we overthink is because it is encouraged by those around us in Western Society intelligence and high IQ are celebrated good grades are rewarded at school and well-paying jobs come to those who are intelligent meaning that the more intelligent we are the more praise we get the problem is that intelligence is often associated with thinking now imagine you're doing a math test and you spend a few minutes thinking about the answer to a complex algebra question you write down your detailed workings and you confidently
write the answer down you feel good about the level of thought you put into the solution and you'll be rewarded for showing how you worked it out too the time detail and thought you put into your work is a sign of thoughtful intelligence however if you rush through the question don't work through your answer and give less attention and thought to the problem you might get the answer wrong and even if you are correct you won't be given any marks for showing how you tackled the question more often than not showing how you've thought about
an answer is rewarded in exams sometimes even more than getting the correct answer is too thinking and intelligence often go hand inand if intelligence is praised then so is thinking this means that we have been conditioned to think more by the way Western Society works and in some cases this can turn into overthinking and sometimes all that overthinking can become overwhelming and it helps to talk it through with someone who understands if you found yourself resonating with anything we've discussed so far our sponsor betterhelp is here to support you betterhelp is the world's largest therapy
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for sponsoring this video now let's move on to the different types of overthinking in the 1960s psychologist Aaron Beck created cognitive behavior avoral therapy part of this therapy aimed to help the person identify when they would fall into thinking traps now many of these thinking traps are associated with overthinking but when you're aware of what they are it can be hugely beneficial to your mental health and well-being the three most common thinking traps are all or nothing thinking now this involves only seeing situations in black or white yes or no All or Nothing situations are
a lot more complex than all or nothing and understanding them from different perspectives is less r nothing is ever a total success or total failure and knowing there's a whole spectrum of gray in between black and white can make all the difference catastrophizing this thinking trap involves believing things are far worse than they actually are for example if you get stuck in traffic and this makes you late for work someone who is catastrophizing can make this mean that they might lose their job and their life is over in reality being late for work once will
not ruin your life and it can be better to take a more relaxed approach overgeneralizing overgeneralizing is a thinking trap that involves judging a situation or event based on an expectation of what has happened in the past when in reality anything can happen and there are multiple outcomes for a situation cognitive behavioral therapy revolves around becoming aware of these thinking traps and testing whether these things are true you can then reframe the thoughts to be less negative and more helpful now you don't have to have this type of therapy to be more aware of how
you're thinking you can start to identify these traps in your thinking on your own to too next how to stop overthinking now that we're experts on the ins and outs of overthinking it's time to take action and get out of that overthinking spiral with these easy steps number one be aware the first step to eliminating overthinking is to be aware that you're doing it this involves mentally noting what you're thinking about and how much chances are if you're watching this video you're already on the way to being a lot more aware of your thinking but
try to catch yourself when you're lost in thought interrupting the flow of over thinking will help you gain back control number two stay present sometimes we can get stuck in our heads and caught up in our own thoughts sometimes anxiety can get the better of you this is why it's important to slow down and stay present get out of your head and into the world around you you can do this by spending time in nature unplugging from Tech and lastly grounding techniques like listing the things you can see hear and feel in the environment around
you number three look at the bigger picture in 5 years we'll this matter is it worth your time and happiness to be spending so much energy on this more often than not it isn't and looking at the bigger picture can help us get some perspective on The Situation Number Four just do it according to researchers approximately half of the US population have a bias towards thinking whereas the other half have a bias towards action if you have a bias towards thinking it may mean that you're more susceptible to overthinking now taking action and just doing
it can get you out of your head and start momentum if you're struggling with this try splitting up the tasks and doing little things to start often these little things will help you get into the groove and you'll want to take more action as a result number five allow yourself to suck perfectionism will only ever hold you back we're often Our Own Worst critics but doing something badly is 1,000 times better than not doing anything at all they say the best way to get good at something is to fail at it 100 times and the
quicker you learn to do that the quicker you'll get good at it so it's time to get busy and there we have it a comprehensive and in-depth guide to overthinking let us know in the comments one thing you're taking from this video and share any tips or tricks you've learned too see you next time [Music]
