Quiet Your Mind: Tips From an NYC Therapist to Manage Overthinking

In today’s fast-paced and overstimulated world, it’s no surprise that many of us struggle with overthinking. The constant noise, endless to-do lists, and pressure to succeed can make it challenging to quiet the mind. While many of us consider overthinking to be inevitable, managing our thoughts is critical for maintaining mental health and overall well-being. As an NYC therapist, I’ve gathered some effective strategies to help you navigate life without the shadow of overthinking so you can make clearer, more conscious decisions. 

Understanding Overthinking

Overthinking is the process of continuously analyzing and ruminating over thoughts, often leading to stress and anxiety. The mind becomes fixated in an all-consuming loop that can feel difficult to break. While overthinking is natural and can be helpful to an extent, it can become a mental trap that prevents you from effectively moving forward. Bringing awareness to when you’re overthinking and the content of your thoughts is the first step toward managing it. 

Tips on How to Manage Overthinking 

1. Practice mindfulness: Mindfulness is the practice of becoming more aware, nonjudgmentally, of the present moment. While meditation is a formal method for building this skill, we can practice mindfulness informally through observing the thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations that arise in a given moment. Mindfulness encourages you to take a pause (even for one minute!)  from your busy life and become more in touch with your current experience. Often, we are too busy to even recognize when we are ruminating and driving our own anxiety! We can use mindfulness to catch overthinking as it occurs and identify the underlying purpose it is serving us. Through pausing to observe our overthinking patterns, we can gain more control over our minds and proceed in a way that aligns with our needs.  
2. Challenge negative thoughts: Once you catch yourself overthinking, it is important to pay attention to the content of your thoughts. Overthinking often involves negative or irrational thoughts. Our minds tend to go to the worst case scenario, when the reality of the situation is more balanced and nuanced. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) encourages individuals to break these negative thought patterns by asking yourself if the thoughts are based on facts or personal assumptions about the situation. Some questions to help you develop a more balanced and focused perspective are: 

• What is the best possible outcome?
• What would a friend say to me in this situation?
• What about this situation do I have control over?
• Am I basing my thoughts on feelings or facts?
• Pushing yourself to critique negative thoughts can help you gain clarity over a situation. 

3. Write it out: When you notice yourself getting stuck in a ruminative cycle, writing down your thoughts can help you focus. Research shows that those who journal are better able to control their emotions and experience overall improvements in well-being. Writing with pen to paper can have a more positive effect than typing out your thoughts; however, using a notes app on your phone is a great way to practice journaling on-the-go. There are no rules with journaling. Don’t worry about grammar or tone. Letting go of perfectionism with journaling is part of the process! 
4. Limit reassurance seeking: When engaging in overthinking, our first instinct might be to ask others for their opinion on a situation. While reassurance from someone might provide an immediate sense of relief, it can actually feed into the anxiety in the long run. We are more likely to continuously seek reassurance as a quick fix rather than work through the anxiety and arrive at a solution ourselves. Instead of asking for reassurance, try encouraging your friend or family member to listen, offer validation, and echo back what they are hearing from you. 

Conclusion

Managing overthinking takes practice and patience, but it’s a worthwhile exercise for your mental health. By incorporating these strategies into your daily life, you can quiet your mind and develop greater well-being. Remember: It’s okay to seek help in managing overthinking if it is feeling out of control. A therapist can work with you to help implement these strategies and more. 

References

Mental health benefits of journaling. (2024, February 24). WebMD. https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/mental-health-benefits-of-journaling

Morin, A. (2024, June 18). How to stop overthinking. VeryWell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/how-to-know-when-youre-overthinking-5077069

Scott, E. (2022, December 1). What is mindfulness? VeryWell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/mindfulness-the-health-and-stress-relief-benefits-3145189

What is cognitive behavioral therapy? (2017). APA. https://www.apa.org/ptsd-guideline/patients-and-families/cognitive-behavioralZucker, B. (2021, May 12). Help an anxious loved one break the reassurance cycle. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/liberate-yourself/202105/help-anxious-loved-one-break-the-reassurance-cycle