by Adapt Training and Development
Many of us in the helping field can relate to being over-thinkers—and this can take a toll on our sleep, our health, and our mental well-being.
If you also struggle with over-thinking, a recent article by Rachel Sylvester in Real Simple magazine offers the following tips:
- Try to reframe your worry as troubleshooting and planning.
- Monitor your self-talk for extremes – if your thinking includes a lot of “always” or “never” thoughts, you are probably distorting your reality toward the negative. Try to catch and challenge these thoughts when they happen. Just because something didn’t happen the last two times you hoped it would doesn’t mean it “never” happens.
- Try to pin down the emotion you are experiencing. For instance, “anxiety” might be due to feeling vulnerable, dread” (of confrontation, for example) or insecure. Understanding the feeling better may help you identify your needs.
- Change your scenery – if you are stuck in a worry loop, consider taking a walk, a stretch break or going to another part of your house. Different visual stimuli may help you pull your thoughts in a new direction.
I like this quote by Rumi: “Put your thoughts to sleep. Do not let them cast a shadow over the moon of your heart.”