I'm Kelly Dennis.
I'd like to talk to you about overthinking today.
Overthinking can feel like a mental prison,
Leaving you anxious and stressed and unable to focus in the present.
In this video,
You'll learn how mindfulness techniques can help you to break the overthinking cycle.
We'll explore practical strategies,
Exercises,
Lifestyle tips to create a calmer,
More focused mind.
We'll also engage in a mindfulness meditation exercise.
And by the end of this video,
You'll have practical tools to help reduce the stress caused by overthinking.
Overthinking happens when your mind is continually dwelling on the same thoughts,
Worries,
Or scenarios in a very repetitive and unproductive way.
So it can be constantly replaying past events,
Worrying excessively about the future,
Having difficulty making decisions,
Feeling mentally exhausted,
Struggling to sleep due to racing thoughts,
And overthinking doesn't just impact your mental health.
It can also affect your physical health as well by increasing your stress hormones,
Disrupting your sleep,
Like I said,
And weakening the immune system.
So mindfulness is paying attention to the present moment on purpose without judgment.
It involves paying attention to your thoughts,
Your emotions,
And your surroundings with gentle awareness.
And unlike overthinking,
What traps you in a cycle of worry,
Mindfulness encourages observation,
Acceptance,
And clarity.
By combining mindfulness with awareness of overthinking,
You can train your mind to notice those unproductive overthinking patterns and gently redirect your mind to the present moment.
Mindfulness techniques work because they disrupt the cycle of rumination and they create a space for that calm awareness.
So we can create an awareness of our thoughts.
Mindfulness teaches you how to notice your thoughts without judgment.
So you start recognizing when you're overthinking before it spirals out of control.
There's also a redirection of focus in mindfulness.
Instead of being consumed by worries,
Mindfulness guides your attention to the present,
Whether it's your breath,
Your body sensations,
Or the surrounding environment.
Overthinking often creates anxiety and stress,
So mindfulness and courage acceptance of your emotions.
Which reduces their intensity and their impact.
And it also breaks the habit loop.
Regular mindfulness practice rewires your brain to respond differently to triggers,
Preventing repetitive thought cycles from taking over.
So we're going to practice a mindfulness meditation technique right now that can help with overthinking.
And then I'll talk a little bit more about some other strategies that can help you as well.
So go ahead if you aren't already in a comfortable position.
You can be sitting up or lying down,
Whichever,
As long as you're not going to fall asleep.
And then go ahead and just gently close down your eyes.
Or if that doesn't feel good,
You can just soft focus someplace down past your nose.
And begin by taking a nice,
Full,
Deep breath in.
And letting it out through your mouth.
And take another full deep breath in through your nose.
And let it out through your mouth.
And then just begin to breathe in whatever way feels good to you.
But notice your breath.
And find your breath in your body.
So that you can use your breath as an anchor.
You can notice the rise and the fall of your body as you breathe.
Or you can notice.
The deep breaths you're taking in through your nose.
And out through your mouth.
It can be intentional about it.
Or you can just breathe in whatever way comes naturally.
Focusing in on the breath.
And then when you notice that your mind has wandered,
Which it will do,
Notice where it went.
As soon as you can.
And then label the thoughts.
You can label them thinking.
Worrying planning.
And then.
.
.
Just let them go.
And come back to the awareness of your breath.
So noticing that inhalation.
And that exhalation.
Noticing the rise and the fall of your belly and your chest.
Or maybe feeling the air on the tip of your nose or over your lower lip.
And once again.
If you notice that your mind has wandered,
And it will,
That's what minds do.
Again,
Notice where it went.
And then label it.
To-do list making.
Planning.
And then just recognize it as a thought.
It's just a mental activity of the mind.
It's not something that necessarily requires your attention.
Or action.
You can just.
.
.
Notice it.
And let it go.
And come back to your breath.
Noticing the gentle in and the out.
Noticing what it's like to breathe.
And then taking a nice deep full breath in.
And letting it out.
Go ahead and open your eyes.
And return to the room.
So doing this very simple exercise where you pay attention to your breath.
You notice when your mind has wandered and you label the thoughts.
And then you let them go.
And you come back to your breathing.
If you do this once or twice a day for two or three minutes,
Over a week or two,
You can begin to train your mind.
To reduce the overthinking cycle.
The other thing that's a strategy that works pretty well is something called mindful journaling.
So spend about 10 minutes and sit down with your journal.
And just write down the thoughts in your mind,
The sentences.
You don't want to try to analyze them or figure them out or what do they mean.
You just want to write down the thoughts.
And you do that for about,
Like I said,
Five or 10 minutes.
And then close your journal and walk away.
Later on,
Come back and reread them and see if you notice any patterns,
Any themes that develop repeatedly.
Do this every day for a week and figure out the themes,
The patterns,
And you'll know then what triggers your overthinking.
And so a lot of times we think it just happens randomly,
But it really doesn't.
We usually,
Each of us has triggers that happen that make that overthinking cycle engage.
If you can figure out those triggers,
Then you can work with them.
Another thing that's really effective are grounding exercises.
So when you notice that your mind has gotten into that overthinking pattern,
Do some grounding.
There's lots of different grounding exercises,
But one of my favorites is the 5-4-3-2-1.
You've probably heard of it.
It's pretty popular.
You notice five things you can see in your environment.
Four things you can touch.
Three things you can hear.
Two you can smell,
And one you can taste.
And so when you notice that your mind has started racing,
If you pause and you do this,
It brings you back.
To the present moment and stopping the overthinking cycle.
The other thing that we can do throughout the day is something called mindful walking.
And so you can do it in your formal walking practice.
If you go for a morning walk or an everyday walk,
You can practice it then.
Or you can practice it just as you're moving around throughout your day.
And that way,
You're practicing mindfulness periodically throughout the day.
And that helps you to get better at it.
All you do is just notice when you're walking,
Right?
So you walk slowly and you notice when your foot.
Hits the ground.
And then you notice how your foot steps off the ground and your leg kind of picks up your foot and extends it forward and the other leg comes up.
And that first leg goes down,
That foot goes down,
And you feel that rhythm of the walking.
You feel your hands and your arms as they're swinging by your sides.
And feel the air as it moves across your skin.
Observing the sounds and sights around you as you move throughout your day.
It brings mindfulness into your everyday practice,
Which is a really good way to get good at it and retrain your brain.
Alongside of meditation and mindfulness and that overthinking awareness,
Some of the lifestyle changes are pretty popular and people know about them,
But it's worth repeating.
Limit your information overload.
If you're a person who spends time on social media or accessing the news throughout the day,
Really limit that.
Those kinds of interactions with our technology really kind of create some of that overthinking pattern inside our mind.
Practice gratitude.
When you notice the overthinking,
Shift your focus to,
What am I grateful for right now?
The simple things,
Right?
It doesn't have to be anything huge,
Right?
The warm mug of coffee that you have in your hand,
Or the cold ice water that you can drink,
Or the birds outside focusing on something that you can be grateful for.
Also,
Engaging in creative activities is usually pretty mindful because you're paying attention to what you're doing.
So that disrupts the overthinking cycle as well.
Drawing or painting or music can all redirect excessive mental energy.
And of course,
Maintaining a healthy routine,
Sleep,
Diet,
And exercise,
They all influence our mental well-being.
But if you find if after two or three weeks that even these particular techniques aren't really doing as much as you want them to do,
You can certainly discuss your worries with a trusted friend,
Or you can seek the support of a therapist.
And that's also helpful too.
Thank you so much for spending this time with me today,
And I hope that these techniques are helpful,
And I hope that you'll return to them.
And I hope that you'll come back to another video at another time.
I'm Kelly Dunis.
Thank you so much.
Be well,
And have a wonderful day.
