The latest article from the Overcome Depression + Thrive Blog.

If you want to stop overthinking everything then, you need to stop ‘thinking’ about your thinking!   Sounds strange, I know! 

But, if you haven’t noticed already, the more we try to stop our overthinking, the worse it gets!

So, what’s the solution?  

How can you put a stop to all of this overthinking so you can finally calm your mind and experience authentic inner calmness and tranquility?

Well, be sure to stay tuned to this episode of Overcome Depression + Thrive, because I’m going to be revealing 3 proven steps you can use right away, to stop overthinking!

Press play now to listen to the Podcast Episode or watch the video below.

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The 3 Proven Steps To Stop Overthinking, That Actually Work! (QUICK LIST)

STEP 1:   Stop Thinking About Your Thinking!

STEP 2:   Separate Thoughts From Thinking!

STEP 3:   Calm Your Breathing To Instantly Calm Your Mind!

READ TRANSCRIPT BELOW:

Hi, and welcome back! As always it’s great to have you here. I’m your host Marie O’Neil, Author of How To Create A Depression-Free Life and the creator of OvercomeDepressionAndThrive.com: Your passport to a depression-free future!

Now, just ask yourself…

What’s the first thing you normally do when you want to stop overthinking?

Have you ever noticed?  

Well, if you’re like the vast majority of us, you try to take control of the thoughts or clamp down on your mind, in an attempt to overpower the constant thoughts and force them to stop.

But, have you ever just stopped and asked yourself how you’re attempting to stop all those annoying thoughts? 

It’s with more thoughts, right?

So, we already have a chaotic mind going on and then, we start thinking: “I must stop my mind from overthinking” – “I must stop my mind from chattering” –  “I shouldn’t be thinking like this!” – “I should be thinking like hat instead!” – “Arrrghh these thoughts are soooo negative, I must stop thinking this way!”  

“If only, I could just STOP all this worrying, then I wouldn’t have to worry so much!” 

It’s crazy, right?!

It’s really easy to see how we can find ourselves in such a bind or in complete mental anguish or suffering in the likes of, depression or anxiety when we try to stop our overthinking by using this typical method of generating more thoughts, to overpower other thoughts.

So, what’s the solution?  

How can we stop all this overthinking?  

How can we “switch off” all those incessant thoughts within the mind and just simply relax?  

How can we free ourselves from all this mental anguish and chaos that occurs when we start overthinking… and then, overthinking about our overthinking…

Well, the answer lies in discovering the 3 proven steps to stop overthinking, which I’m going to be revealing to you today. 

These steps allow you to easily and very quickly calm your mind and experience authentic inner calmness and tranquility even if, you don’t think its possible for you!

Sound good?

Well, let’s get started!

So, if you haven’t already guessed…

STEP 1: Stop Thinking About Your Thinking! 

Stop adding more thoughts into the mix. Seriously, creating more thoughts will NEVER stop overthinking, it’ll only worsen it!  

So, the very first step is to simply stop trying to fight or rebel against any thoughts or overthinking that’s happening.

And, we do that by following Step #2 which is…

STEP 2: Separate Thoughts From Thinking! 

Here’s what I mean…

So, we have thoughts that ‘pop up’ in our mind throughout the day. These can be random thoughts about anything. 

There’s positive thoughts, negative thoughts, hateful thoughts, loving thoughts, thoughts about death, thoughts about life.

Thoughts about anything and everything are going to ‘pop up’ within your mind. That’s absolutely guaranteed! 

There’s nothing we can do about it because it’s the very nature of our mind.

But, I just want you to imagine for a moment… 

You’re walking along the street and you see a poisonous pill on the pavement.  And, you know it’s a poisonous pill because it’s got a great big label on it which says “poisonous!”

Now, even though that pill has the potential to harm you, if you simply walk around it and leave it alone, you’ll be fine, right?  

It’s not until you take the action of picking up that pill and ingesting it does that pill now have the ability to cause you great harm or even death. 

Makes sense, right?

Same goes with thoughts.  They’re just like that poisonous pill.

If you simply leave them alone, move around them and focus on other things, you’ll remain unaffected by them.

You see, troubles like overthinking, anxiety or constant mental anguish don’t start until we decide to take action and move towards specific thoughts.  

As in, we start thinking and interacting with those thoughts. 

And, as a result they begin to directly affect our mental, emotional and physical well-being.  Either, in a positive, negative or neutral way depending upon the quality of the thoughts we’re interacting with.

So, we have ‘thoughts’ and we have the “action” of ‘thinking’.  They are two very different things.

Random thoughts, we cannot control but we CAN control which thoughts we think about or interact with.  

So, if you want to stop thinking about certain thoughts, you simply need to “cut the connection.” Stop “thinking” about them. Stop “interacting” with them.  It really is that simple.

Now, some may say…

“But, I can’t stop my thinking!”

“I’ve tried anything and everything and I cannot stop my chaotic mind.”

Well, I used to believe that too, once upon a time. But, here’s the deal…

If you begin to see your overthinking mind as a wild, untamed bull which is bucking you all over the show! You’re being thrown from pillar to post and you seem to have no say in the matter, no control over what’s happening to you.  It’s totally scary because it seems only the bull has the ultimate power in this situation…

But, we all know the wildest bull CAN be tamed with skill, determination and patience and that’s all we need to do with our chaotic mind.

We simply need to strap ourselves into the saddle, take hold of those reins and tame it!

And, how do you tame the chaotic mind?  Well, the answer lies in step #3, which is…

STEP 3: Calm Your Breathing To Instantly Calm Your Mind!

Did you know, it’s absolutely impossible to have a chaotic mind and calm, deep breathing at the very same time. 

It’s physically impossible. 

It’s true! I mean, just start observing yourself. Start becoming aware of your breathing when you’re feeling tense, anxious, depressed or overwhelmed and you’ll soon see, that in these states your breathing pattern is shallow, it’s erratic or both. 

This is because the mind and breath always go together. If the mind is disturbed or agitated, our breathing is also agitated