Overthinking 101

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 Hello everybody! 

Welcome back!!

Now anyone who knows me personally would describe me some what as a 'professional overthinker'.

Partly due to my anxiety, partly due to my extremely cautious mind, and partly due to self doubt, I have always tried my best to stay one step ahead, which may or may not have led to excessive amounts of overthinking eep :p

Except, I know I'm not the only one who goes through this🤷🏻‍♀️

Let's admit it, we have all spent a significant amount of time pondering over embarrassing moments, reliving conversations in your head and thinking about all the things you wish you had or had not said. 

A very recent case of mine:
I was supposed to send the working of a numerical to my pedagogue. I initially approached it by dividing it by a thousand then overthought and decided to cut it off and leave it as is. When he told me it was incorrect, the queen of silly mistakes noticed that they had added incorrectly :)  That wasn't just it. The final answer turned out to be the one where it was supposed to be divided by 1000 and I clowned myself😃👍 

Though it isn't very serious when it's occasional, but once it becomes frequent, it may open up a path for mental health issues.

To combat that, I recently came across a very effective method which I wanted to share with you all which has worked wonders for me.

The Circle Theory

My friend recommended this method to me and I hope it works for you as well.

Simply goes this way:
  • Imagine yourself to be in the middle of a circle. You are surrounded by a boundary. That boundary consists of variables you cannot control. 
What is within the boundary is things you can control. Things that are in your hand, which you can manipulate for your best.
Let me give you an example which is actually something that had happened to me.

It was the beginning of my boards and I was sitting in the exam hall, all prepped about 30 minutes before the exam. 30 minutes before I began writing the paper I had a gush of thoughts that filled my brain with negative feelings. "How will the paper go?", "What if I don't do well?", "If I mess up this one, all will go bad" were just a few of them. 
However, because I followed this method it helped me categorize my thoughts. Looking at it practically was of a great help. I sat quietly on my bench and thought to myself:

"Can I control the questions in the paper?" No.
"Can I control my preparation for it?" Yes.
"Have I prepared well for this exam?" Yes.
"Do I know my score before writing the paper?" No.
"What is in your control?" I can calm down, read the questions carefully, and answer them.

This, of course, is a brief version of what actually went on in my head- but what was important was, 15 minutes before the exam I was calm and not panicking. 
  • A very important thing to note when performing this exercise is that you need to mentally accept you cannot control everything and this method won't work overnight. It's gonna take some practice, but eventually it becomes a part of your routine and helps you combat those overwhelming thoughts effectively.
Also, at the end of the line you're gonna have to do it. Whatever activity it is that you're overthinking, karna toh padhega 🤷🏻‍♀️ Whether it's moving on or going into, you have to take the leap. The only thing is, how you take it on- do you panic and perform it, or do you calmly enjoy the process?

That was it for today's post. I certainly do hope this helps you. Let me know in the comments if it did!
Don't forget to share and follow for more :)

Signing off,
Kuhu :)

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