Ways To Stop Over-Thinking Everything

Are you guilty of over-thinking things? Do you leave a job interview, or a date and overanalyze everything you said throughout the entire conversation? Do you think you could have done better, answered better, or laughed a little less like a hyena? Did your voice take on that weird high pitch you sometimes get when you’ve had more than one martini? The problem with life is that far too many people over-think far too many things, for no particular reason. To make yourself happier, and more confident, you need to stop over-thinking right now. Here’s how.

Change Your Tune

Instead of thinking how much you hate your job or how much you think something sucks, think to yourself how much you want to change your way of thinking and then change it. For example, think to yourself not that your job sucks, but that you’d very much like to change careers so you can do something that satisfies you a little more.

Change Your Beliefs

When you wonder why your boss wasn’t as friendly as usual to you when you ran into her in the break room this morning, you may immediately think you did something wrong and she’s mad at you. However, you need to stop analyzing your work and possible mistakes and instead think to yourself that she was preoccupied with something else. Perhaps her kids were up all night long with a fever or teething, or maybe her in-laws are coming to town and she’s wondering if her house is clean enough. It’s not always about you, you know.

Change Your Train of Thought

When you feel yourself over-thinking something, you need to redirect your attention elsewhere. For example, if you can manage to start thinking about something else, such as what you need to do to prepare for dinner or what you want to wear to work the rest of the week, you won’t focus so much on your negative thoughts.