November 2024

The title says it all. Overthinking is pointless. If you are someone who overthinks about certain situations or experiences, you may often experience an avalanche of thoughts that buries you alive.

While that may sound slightly hyperbolic, I would say as someone who also dabbles in overthinking from time to time, it can feel quite overwhelming. We will discuss why it’s harmful and why it may (and most likely) just all be in your head.

Why is your brain doing this?

There are a number of reasons of why our thought processes tend to spiral because of mundane situations. Some include stress, mental health problems, perfectionism, and low self-esteem, to name a few. Overthinking isn’t fun, and at times it’s really just us trying to make sense out of a situation or to fill in the gaps so to speak.

Although, at times it may be tough to combat these lines of thought, it’s not impossible. With practice we can begin to flip our thoughts by thinking of our predicaments more practically. For others, this may not work, and that is where the experts come in. Therapy is a useful tool, as well as getting the treatment and emotional help needed that comes with excessive overthinking.

Ways to combat overthinking: Underthinking

If you really want to change your overthinking habits, it may be time to underthink it. That’s right. Underthink. That is what I call it at least.

When we take an already convoluted thought process, and try to chip it away until it’s smaller than it is, we can get rid of excessive overthinking. One example I will give is recently when my phone decided to not work. For a moment it was not taking calls nor was it able to send any.

After getting a text message from a friend I was worried they would think I was ignoring them. I began to call many times, as well as reach out on social media, fearing a miscommunication would happen and they would be upset, etc. When the call was eventually able to go through, I came to find they weren’t upset at all. I had overthought the situation.

The point is, if I had simply underthought the situation, then it would have went something like this. Hmm, my phone isn’t taking any calls… I will just try to send this one message to them. If it doesn’t go through, that’s okay. I can explain once my phone works. Simple right? That is the art of underthinking.

Make your problems smaller

A lot of overthinking can come from us feeling like we will mess up or that we need to be perfect all the time. No one is perfect, and it is okay to give yourself some grace for the slight blunders you’ll make during social interactions. No one is going to point and laugh at you because you’re wearing a jacket that doesn’t match your pants.

The beauty of being human is that most humans think of themselves. While yes, that doesn’t sound particularly great to hear, it’s also encouraging to know that while you’re feeling like you’re going to puke during public speaking, someone is zoning out during your speech much more captivated by whether they forgot to turn the stove off. Everyone is wrapped up in their own little lives.

So free yourself from spiraling and start to engage more in underthinking. I guarantee that no one notices but you, and I mean that in the best way possible.

---