It’s not new that as human beings we think about important decisions of our life. In fact, it’s pretty normal and good sometimes.

However, many just can’t get their head out of these repetitive thoughts loop and end up feeling frustrated and exhausted.

When you worry and think too much, even a small problem looks bigger and scarier and you start overanalyzing every small experience you get.

This is when overthinking enters where you don’t go anywhere, but it locks you inside your own mind with a storm of threatening thoughts.

Furthermore, a constant negative cycle of rumination not only affects your mental and emotional well-being but also stops you from enjoying the present moment.

Plus, an overthinking person even creates so many self-doubts and less productivity in current reality.

I am saying this by my own experience. Trust me, it won’t help. The best thing you can do with yourself is, simply learn to stop overthinking.

I know, that’s not easy to do and not was for me too. But don’t worry, with some practice and guidance you can stop overthinking and not go mad with it.

Check out my below 11 simple ways to stop overthinking and be free to live your life happily:

Take a pause and rethink of your thoughts

Sometimes you can’t stop overthinking because you don’t realize when you have started and went deep in it.

The key step is being aware of the time you notice yourself re-playing past events, someone’s misbehaviors or figuring out why this happened and immediately tell your mind “STOP”.

I have recently learned this. I always observe my thoughts going through my mind. When they aren’t productive or useful, I keep saying

“I don’t want to think about something useless.”

But the first thing, observe and then practice to stop it or diverting it into the current activity.

Because if you try to calm your mind forcefully, it will make things even worse. For example, if someone says not to think of a red apple, what will be the first thing comes in your mind? Exactly.

Ask yourself if whatever I am thinking is going to be matter in next 5 months even? If it’s “NO”, leave it. Don’t spend your time and energy on it.

You can even note down these thoughts and just throw them in the dustbin. It brings more relief from thoughts and next time they won’t look horrible!

Engage yourself in the present moment

Yes, it’s tough to concentrate on the present time when you overthink, but not impossible.

Overthinking paralyze you with a feeling of negativity and lost so you find it impossible to live again. No, don’t do this.

Just start doing whatever you like, painting, dancing, swimming or try to achieve your favorite goal. A small action towards your life happiness can slowly remove the thought’s effect.

Here, the trick is to engage your brain in some physical activity to break the chain of thoughts and bring them in reality. 

In short, distract your mind doing something different you like, whether you want it or not to stop overthinking.

By the time, you’ll learn to control your mind and it won’t run here and there restlessly.

Realize you can’t control everything in life

Well, I don’t need to tell you this. You already know we can’t control everything and that’s true.

Even we don’t know what’s stored in our future, whether it’s good or bad. Then why to worry thinking about what can go right and what can go wrong?

We often stress ourselves thinking about future, interviews, businesses and many more things that we can’t change, including worrying about what others think.

All we can do is live in now, this time.

Just focus on giving your best, rest things will happen as they were destined to. Don’t miss out the joy and happiness you can earn from this moment.

Moreover, keep in mind, no one is perfect so don’t try to be perfect. People make mistakes, learn from it with move on with a positive attitude.

Take decisions, plan the future and forget the past, but never stop moving on with a thought to control everything that happens in your life, not an overthinking too!

Accept what it is and let go

True, it’s hard to accept what it is and let go. Especially when, you’re in a really very tough situation like a jobless penniless person or hurt by someone’s behavior.

This takes time and practice. Understand one thing, if there’s something you can do with the situation, take action. And, if not, just let it go.

But, don’t sit in a hopeless manner overthinking about what happened and the person who hurt you. That’s not for what you’re here.

I have wasted my so much time in this type of pointless thinking, and surely don’t want you to do the same.

We all are here to live a happy life and spread happiness in everyone’s life. Just do what your heart desire, else, stop going mad on thinking of why and what.

Things happen for some reason and you’ll get to know it at the right time, have patience. But for right now, accept the reality and let go.

Fact that it’s easy to say, but ultimately, you have to learn this “Let Go” approach to stop overthinking.

Find some peace by Forgiveness

There is no surprise that a misfortune leads people to think much over past and get tense about the future.

And, because some people treated us undesirably, we often lose our inner peace by keeping anger and resentment towards them.

Holding on grudges and resentment will only hurt you and makes you bitter than helping you to stop overthinking.

Remember, forgiveness is the only way to get your peace back, and not because it’s high in moral standards and seems spiritually grown.

Forgive those who hurt you, even when they’re not sorry for their actions. It will not only make you relax but also gives better positivity, mood and health.

Similarly, don’t be too hard on yourself either. You too deserve forgiveness for whatever mistakes you did. No need to feel guilty as we all do mistakes and learn the better way to correct it.

After all, it needs a lot of effort to forgive someone. But once you do this, you’ll see how peaceful it is.

Practice Meditation and Mindfulness

Meditation in the middle of the overthinking board is like an impossible task, especially when we aren’t even able to concentrate on our daily life.

Though through daily practice, it’s possible to keep your mind quiet of thoughts.

Sit in a peaceful atmosphere at any time (preferably in the morning) you are not in rush. Slowly pay attention to each and every breath you take.

If the thoughts pop into your head, simply observe them with peace and awareness without any judgment or reaction to it.

This will make them lose their power over you and you’ll become calmer and relax.

Practice meditation and mindfulness for just 10 minutes every day to help you to stop overthinking completely.

Additionally, it provides several health benefits also such as relieve depression and anxiety, enhance memory power and improve self-confidence.

If you think you can’t concentrate, play some instrumental soft music. There are many meditation tunes available on YouTube.

So make time for meditation, not just to stop overthinking, but also to live a healthy life.

Learn thought management

Thought management is a way to think usefully by replacing a fearful thought with a useful and worthy thought that no more scares you.

For example, in business, you’re afraid of thinking what if it won’t work. Instead, give a thought like “let me do my best. And even if I fail, I can learn from it and do more hard work.”

This applies in every situation whether you’re expecting promotion, going for an interview or trying to make a relationship work.

Considering the worst-case scenario make you aware of the fact that it looks less scary than your mind’s disaster assumptions. 

Also, sometimes we create an imaginary negative cycle about situation or action happened which does not relate to truth or reality.

Raise only one question to challenge it: “am I sure this is true?”. If that’s not true, involving in baseless thinking only wastes your time and energy, nothing else.

Make it a habit, you’ll see how it gives you a great relaxation in all situation.

Make a good morning routine

I strongly believe that how you start your day reveals how the rest of the day will spend. When you start a stressful morning, it will only lead to more dark thoughts during a day.

Immerse yourself in a good morning routine to save yourself from unnecessary stress and overthinking later that day.

Furthermore, divide your tasks into small parts and takes regular breaks in between. This allows you to take rest and be relaxed while completing your tasks with a clear and decisive mind.

Also, I have seen many people looking into their phones, maybe checking mails or social media right after waking up.

By doing this you only give your fresh mind a bunch of negativity in the morning, making it easy to fall back into that similar overthinking habit.

On the other hand, occupy yourself in a healthy morning routine. For instance, reading something inspirational over breakfast, some healthy yoga poses, meditation or cardio to lift you up.

Plus, preparing a few mindful notes to get important tasks done also helps you to set a good mood for the day.

Wake up early to get a good start of the day, and you’ll realize you’ve started to think differently!

Do Exercises

Workouts are mainly considered for its weight loss result. That’s perfectly right. But, there are a lot more health benefits of exercise including relieving tension and worries.

How? Let’s see.

Any workout or exercise needs a focus and attention to do it. Which means while working your mind get distracted from those countless thoughts running in your mind and force you to focus on now.

Additionally, as per science, endorphins are the chemicals in the brain responsible for better mood, good feelings and positivity.

When you exercise, it boosts these endorphins in your brain that helps to lower depression symptoms and reduce the chances of negative thinking.

Exercises are best when done in the morning. Go for a walk, run or do exercises on your own to stay fit and say goodbye to overthinking.

However, doing workouts in a group gives you super motivation to stick with it. So make exercise a habit if you truly want to stop overthinking!

Start each day with Gratitude

Gratitude is a great art of being grateful for what good you have in your life. Although, it’s nearly unattainable when you are already embarked on overthinking boat.

Make sure you start each day with gratitude. Create a journal to write down all the things you’re grateful for. Read them each day before you go to sleep and after waking up.

Think about the things, people and situation you’re grateful for and make a habit to express it often to your near ones.

With gratitude, you’ll learn to pay attention to only good sides of your life and find little to no time on negative sides.

Still, be patient as this is a long-term process and needs everyday effort to become grateful.

But, once you learn it, you’ll spend more time to appreciate the goods and less time worrying and overthinking.  

Always think positive

At first glance, it looks impractical to stay positive when a flood of negative thoughts directing your mind and I agree with that.

Though, it’s always preferable to think positive for every situation no matter what.

We all go through some life phases that are unpleasant and horrible. That doesn’t mean you just sit back and become negative of it.

Learn to think that things might also go well than filling yourself with doubts. If you want to start a new business, think usefully, stay positive and jump in.

Tell yourself that things will go as I planned and even if not, I will not lose anything but only learn new ways.

Now, this is about the future. But what if past events threaten you?

The answer is, keep the lesson you’ve learned from that incident and just forget about the rest.

It’s really hard to adapt since we can stay positive for the future but not with the past. Just divert your mind to positive side whenever you get trapped in past negativity.

Keep in mind, past is just for learning from mistakes, not to carry in the future. It will only hold you back from moving on, that’s it.

Try to stay positive about everything, do practice and you’ll soon be a positive person.

The Final Thought…

In life, at some point, we all overthink and overanalyze situations in our minds, and that’s okay until it becomes a habit.

Go ahead and take a step to follow these 11 simple ways to stop overthinking and get back to a happy and positive life.

In the end, we all have this one life so it’s not right to waste it on overthinking. Kick it out of your life and be ready to praise each and every moment!