Heya playa, do you find yourself always thinking about something, always doing something and
never just stopping to be?
Don't worry, you're not alone.
Every single persons mind runs on autopilot sometimes so it's totally normal.
But what if I were to tell you that there's a way to stop overthinking in that process?
I'll tell you how, right after this.
This is The Josh Speaks.
You're watching The Josh Speaks.
From the moment we wake up to the moment we go to sleep, our brains are always active
and on and we rarely give them a chance to rest throughout the day.
We're thinking about things we have to do and that have happened to us and we rarely
ever dedicate this moment to being in this moment.
When we're eating breakfast in the morning we're checking Facebook, when we're hanging
out with friends we're using Snapchat, it's almost as if multitasking allows us to feel
more comfortable with the moment we're in.
As if every second must feel accounted for or else we're going to feel anxious and restless.
Even more than that, we as people tend to dwell a lot on things we should have said,
moments we should have acted on and opportunities we should have took.
And the fact that there aren't two of us, or more than 24 hours in the day means that
we're going to have to make some hard decisions about what we're actually capable of doing.
I know I'm guilty too of spending way too much time thinking about a crush or trying
to weigh out all my options before I make a big decision.
The thing is, overthinking is something our brains do to protect us, it helps us rationalize
through everything that's going on so that we don't end up getting hurt or killed.
However, after many centuries of living, we found a way to have way more free time.
And with all that extra free time, we're left pondering things.
Not having to think about where we're going to get our food, our shelter and our protection
from the big bad world outside leaves us with a lot of moments where we're just sitting
here in the now and that can be kind of awkward.
Think about it like this, you're waiting in a long line and it's taking forever, so you
decide to pull out your phone so you have something to pay attention to.
But what if your phone dies?
Now you're faced with the grim reality of standing there and doing nothing.
Or at least nothing in comparison to having one of these.
The truth of the matter is that whether you're on your phone or you're not, you're still
doing something so what's the difference?
The difference is how you're applying your thoughts.
Generally anything you're looking at on your phone is a toss away.
You're reading a status, you're scrolling through someone's feed or you're watching
a quick video.
But when you're faced with having to truly be in the present, you require yourself to
think a little bit deeper.
You become way more observant of the little things happening around you, the way your
chair creaks when you sit on it, the sound of the air conditioner as it's blasting, or
just the general temperature of the room.
Recognizing these little things that are happening in front of you keep you in the present moment.
But generally what happens is our mind starts to slip off to other thoughts and that's why
we turn to a distraction like our phone to keep us away from that.
The phone or any other device like it is a temporary distraction to prevent us from thinking
too much.
But the problem here isn't thinking, it's what we're thinking about.
So I guess this leads us to the basic question, how do we kick this bad habit of overthinking
and allow ourselves to think peacefully?
The best thing you can do is to spend a little bit of your day away from other groups or
people.
That's not to say you shouldn't share your thoughts and feelings with other people, but
you should allow yourself to first process them on your own.
It's only when you spend time away from others that you allow your thoughts to become deeper.
For example, imagine something happens that you're really really hurt by, but you're hanging
out with your friends.
What are you more inclined to do, pretend like it doesn't bother you and shrug it off
just so that you don't look weak in front of them or actually open up and talk about
it.
By granting yourself that alone time, you're allowed to process your feelings, whether
they're sad or mad or happy or angry.
A big reason why you may overthink is because you spend more of that mental power thinking
about things that have happened rather then what you're feeling then and there.
And that's why it's incredibly important to ask the question "What do you do with the
mad that you feel?"
Do you allow yourself to overthink about something that happened or do you try to handle your
feelings then and there?
Having your alone time with no distractions also helps you work towards understanding
other people.
We're always quick to decide how someone else feels and why they do what they do, for example
let's say someone says something really mean to you and you come to the conclusion, "well,
they're mean because they're just a jerk".
We will constantly overthink what they said and why they said it and always come to the
conclusion, well they did it because they're a jerk.
But when we allow ourselves to deal with our own feelings, to think in the present moment
we then begin to realize that there's probably more to that story.
Thinking about our own feelings makes us realize that we're capable of being hurt and suffering
and chances are the person who's lashing out against us is suffering in their own way.
And that's why overthinking will continue to happen unless you allow yourself to process
your thoughts and your feelings in the present moment.
So here are three quick actionable tips that you can take right now to help you stop overthinking,
the first one is simple: unplug yourself from technology.
Take an hour or more each day to just not touch technology.
Don't allow yourself to become distracted by your phone, don't watch tv, don't play
video games, just try to sit and think.
Sitting and thinking doesn't mean just sit there and be bored though, you can sit and
look out a window, you can just hang out and relax in a chair, do something that is comfortable
and relaxing without distraction.
Next, use the early mornings as a way to find some alone time for yourself.
Chances are throughout the day there's a lot of hustle and bustle going on and it's hard
to concentrate on anything.
But if you wake up super early before everyone else does, you'll be able to experience that
peace and quiet before the day begins.
But the most important one is to schedule time in your day to relax.
It doesn't matter if it's an hour, 15 minutes or even 5 minutes.
Give yourself that amount of time to just stop.
You can use that time to go for a walk around your block, you can download something like
the Calm app to help you meditate or even just sit in your bathroom alone with no distractions
for those 15 minutes, whether you want to do a number 2 in that time is totally up to
you though.
If you implement these three techniques, you'll find it easier to stop overthinking and you'll
allow yourself to actually deal with how you're feeling when it happens in that present moment.
You're not dwelling on the past and you're not getting anxious about the future, you're
just being here.
And that's the best way to overpower overthinking.
Yes there will be times where your mind will wander off into the future or start thinking
about something from the past, and the best thing you could do is to catch yourself, to
recognize that you're doing it and to come back here.
What do you think though, do you find yourself overthinking a lot?
Leave your comment below and we'll talk about it.
If you're new to the channel, make sure to hit the subscribe button below.
I put out a new video every Tuesday and Friday sharing tips, ideas and stories teaching you
how to be your best self.
Also don't forget to check out all the video links in the description below, I put a bunch
of them there that I think will be super helpful if you find yourself overthinking, thinking
about negative thoughts or you just want to learn how to deal with your own anxiety.
Check those videos out and I hope they help you out.
As always guys, love and peace.