in this week's video i'm going to give you a step-by-step guide in what to do
if you catch yourself overthinking and how to stop overthinking or worrying okay so step number one
you need to find yourself a quiet place sit down in a comfortable position and close your
eyes now you need to start thinking about your breathing so forget about whatever is on your mind
and start focusing on your breathing breathe in and out slowly and gently and if you want
when you breathe in you can hold your breath for a couple of seconds and then slowly breathe out
you can do this a couple of times if it's needed you don't need to do it too many times but what
you're trying to do is take all of that focus and attention on your breathing now step number two
once you've mastered the breathing technique you need to now start practicing mindful meditation
for about five to ten minutes so keep those eyes closed and begin clarifying your thoughts think to
yourself which one of these thoughts are important and which ones aren't and slowly get rid of the
ones that aren't important and just focus on the ones that are important this is whilst you're
still doing the breathing technique it's whilst you're calm you need to stay away from your phone
or your computer or anything like that so what we're doing with this mindful meditation is
we're clarifying our thoughts step number three open your eyes and write down your thoughts in a
diary or a journal or anything like that whether it's your phone or anything like that will do
basically what you're doing here is all those thoughts whether they're positive or negative
they're getting printed on paper or on your phone that way it's like taking it out of your
mind and putting it somewhere else to come back to step number four now that you have this list
that's been created of all the things that you're thinking about you then need to organize it into
deep and shallow work now if you're wondering what deep and shallow work is i did do a video
all about this on boosting your productivity not long ago and i will link it up here and in
the description below but it's basically a way of organizing your time to what is the most important
and what is the quick sort of things that you can do and what are the long-term sort of things
that you can do so it's really important that you understand deep and shallow work
i will also leave more information about it in the description for you too
step number five look i know that writing these thoughts on paper or on your phone or whatever
that's the most difficult bit once you've done that or whilst you're doing that give yourself a
break every now and then get up put your trainers on and go for a walk go for a walk in the park go
for a walk whether it's a garden center anything like that will do just so it's a change of scenery
these are going to really help and it's been shown that exercising can lift your mood can reduce your
anxiety so it's really really good for you and it's important you get this in now this moves
us on nicely to step number six look you've gone for a walk but that's great but you need to do
some more high intensity exercise so whack on them trainers again and either pull out a yoga mat do a
bit of yoga or if you're like me go for a run look when you're doing this sort of running and stuff
like that for myself for example i completely switch off i just have my music on my headphones
and i can stop thinking about everything that i'm over thinking about and i just run
that's all i'm thinking about running and having a good time feeling my body sort of
moving and just not thinking about everything that's going on so getting in that exercise
i can't stress it enough but it's going to make such a big difference step number seven it's
all about distractions look if you enjoy doing something like let's say for example reading or
drawing a picture or anything like that and it's going to distract you from overthinking these are
great things to do and it doesn't just have to be reading and drawing pictures you might enjoy
talking to friends and colleagues or whoever so if that's what you enjoy doing do that so it keeps
your mind occupied step number eight practice self-praise look if you're someone who doesn't
reward themselves continuously then you need to start doing this you need to learn to do this
it's going to have such a good effect on you and it's going to increase your self-esteem as well
which in turn is going to reduce your overthinking so self-praise is super super important remember
that you're awesome and if you also want to learn about boosting self-esteem i did do a video about
it not long ago which i will link up here and in the description below too so the next question is
when does overthinking become a problem well here's three different ways that overthinking
can affect your health so firstly overthinking can affect your sleep it can cause insomnia it can
give you poor quality sleep you might be waking up early all of these things are going to affect your
life because you're going to feel tired you're going to feel drained you're not going to have
the motivation to do things so that's one of the ways that it can affect your life and if you are
someone who struggles to sleep i have made a video on sleeping and how to sleep better and get better
quality sleep i've got two videos on it i will leave links to them up here and in the description
below too secondly overthinking can affect your problem solving skills so if you have to make
a big decision write it down and write down the different thoughts that you can and can't control
and this might help you solve the problem better also you can always ask someone that you know and
trust to help you with solving that problem and help your thoughts with it remember you got this
and thirdly please remember that if you overthink too much you're four times more likely to develop
mental health conditions such as depression now the next bit that we're going to talk about
are these mental health conditions and red flags to look out for so that you speak to a healthcare
professional so let's go to them now some people will find overthinking a little difficult to
tackle on their own this is quite normal but also there are mental health conditions associated
with overthinking as well so we're going to go through them i want you to listen closely i
will leave more information about these in the description below too but these are what i'm
going to call red flags they're going to prompt you to speak to a healthcare professional if you
feel like any of these kind of symptoms match yourself or anyone that you know then they need
to speak to a healthcare professional so let's go through them okay so number one repetitive
negative and suicidal thoughts these could be a sign of clinical anxiety or depression number
two hearing voices or experiencing hallucinations which trigger negative thoughts this could be a
sign of schizophrenia number three try to distract your thoughts by developing repetitive habits
that disrupt your life this could be a sign of ocd which stands for obsessive compulsive
disorder number four phobia you have a fear of something and you need help to manage that fear
because otherwise you're not going to be able to live your normal life because you're constantly
overthinking about that fear and number five if you've had a past traumatic experience
you may be suffering from something called ptsd post traumatic stress disorder and you may need
help to manage these symptoms and move away from that overthinking slowly now that's the list i've
done it very basically i've given you a very summarized version of it but what i am going
to do is i'm going to leave loads more information in the description below and i'd highly recommend
that everyone reads it and looks into it and i'm also going to leave some really useful links about
them to the certain charities as well who have really good websites and i'll leave links to
them as well so please that's the most important thing just give it a read and learn it thank you
for watching this video i really hope that my tips help you with all the overthinking you are now an
overthinking pro you now know all about it you know the science behind it you know what to do
you know what red flags to look out for so you're an overthinking pro so tell your friends tell your
family tell your loved ones tell everyone because you know overthinking like the back of your hand
now please remember if you have any future ideas or topics that you want me to discuss in a future
video then please leave a comment below too and if you have any tips for overthinking as well leave a
comment down there too because i love to read it and i'm sure everyone watching this video would
too that's the end of this week's video always remember that you're awesome and i will see you
next week hey guys thanks for watching this week's video make sure to click
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