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There are many different kinds of cheeses!
You walk into any given grocery store, and there it is! The long, daunting shelf of cheeses.
There's orange cheddar, white cheddar, mozzarella,
parmesan, provolone, Colby-Jack, and the list goes on.
All you need is cheese for tonight's dinner, but this is turning out to be the hardest decision of your life.
If you can relate to this, or a situation less ridiculous but similar to this, you're probably an over-thinker.
Many of us are guilty of being over thinkers, and there's nothing wrong with that.
But here's a list of seven things that over-thinkers can relate to:
1) Over-thinkers apologize too much
Before you're even sure if something is your fault, you're already apologizing for it.
This leaves you feeling vulnerable and exposed to more trouble.
Like for example, taking the blame for every situation may cause others to take advantage of you.
Over-thinkers tend to want to smooth over the rough patches, but sometimes it can cause more trouble than it's worth.
2) Over-thinkers relive embarrassing past experiences in their heads
You tend to repeatedly relive the moments you are less proud of in your mind. For example:
Imagine that you're having a perfectly normal day.
Then your brain decides to remind you of that one time in middle school when you ripped your pants in gym class.
And just like that, your whole day is ruined.
You tend to relive these past experiences and imagine how it could have gone differently.
3) Over-thinkers appear more insecure than they really are
Because of your indecisive nature, it may cause others to view you as unsure of yourself or
under-confident
This becomes apparent in working situations, because you take too long to make decisions for clients or projects.
4) Over-thinkers have problems sleeping
When you lay down at night, your brain starts to process all of the information you learned from that day.
If you're a natural over-thinker,
your brain goes haywire at night trying to organize all the thoughts that you're having. You may lay down in your bed at 9:30 p.m,
only to find yourself wide awake at 1:00 a.m,
forming a plan of how you're finally gonna start going to the gym on a regular basis.
A study published in May 2003 states that there is a direct link between
rumination, or overthinking, and negative emotions and thoughts.
Sleep quality and depressive and irritated moods go hand-in-hand.
5) Over-thinkers worry about making others happy
You often disregard your own desires for the sole purpose of satisfying someone else.
You may repress your own opinion,
so as not to contradict someone else.
You constantly make decisions based on how other people would react to them, rather than what is best for you.
6) Over-thinkers always need a second opinion
It's hard for you to make a decision on your own.
You may spend hours in the department store, because you're taking pictures of every outfit and sending it to all your friends for their input.
It may be difficult for you to make even simple decisions without consulting an outside source.
7) Over-thinkers spend time worrying about things they have no control over
Whether you like it or not, there are always going to be things in the world that you have no control over.
In fact, most things fall into that category. If you're an over-thinker, you tend to lose sleep over things that are completely and utterly uninfluenced by you.
It's okay to accept that some things are out of your reach.
Sometimes over-thinkers make their lives more difficult than they have to be. A study published in September 2008 titled
Rethinking rumination, states that there is a strong relationship between overthinking and mental illness.
Based on a person's proneness to overthink,
you may be able to predict the likelihood of that person being depressed or having anxiety.
Being an over-thinker can make you good at critical thinking, as well as sympathetic to others and their problems.
But there are many options out there to help stop you from overthinking your whole life,
if you feel that it's a problem. Try to put things in a perspective! Do some meditation or deep breathing!
Stop trying to make everything perfect, because that more than likely is never gonna happen! If you're an over-thinker,
try overthinking the good things in your life, rather than the bad!