Is analysis paralysis taking its toll?

Overthinking steals joy from your life. The incessant wondering, problem-solving, and worry are not productive and keep you from living a joy-filled life.

The terrible thing about overthinking is that none of your thoughts are real. The scenario planning, problem-solving, and worry lead nowhere. However, at the moment, you are convincing yourself that it’s a productive use of your time.

It’s hard to believe, but it’s possible to tame your wild thoughts that keep you in fear and stuck in your life.

Here is how I tamed my overthinking mind.

Boxed Breathing

Boxed breathing is helpful to bring you back to the present. You need to get back to the present moment because your incessant analyzing and worrying are trying to predict the future. Once you are back in the present moment, you can make better decisions about what’s going on in that moment and how your actions will impact the moment.

How do you do boxed breathing?

You inhale while counting down, 4, 3, 2,1. Hold, counting down, 4, 3, 2, 1 Exhale while counting down 4, 3, 2, 1. Pause for 4 seconds and repeat. You can do this process 3–5 times until you get centered.

Gain control over fear

You’re stuck in analysis paralysis because you are in fear of something. Usually, what you fear, rarely ever comes true; however, the fear of it happening is so real that it prevents you from living freely. Your thoughts are all over the place; you might fear making a mistake, looking incompetent, or getting fired. The question is, should these fears stop you from living your life freely? Are your fears rational? What is the probability of your fears materializing, and do you think it’s a good use of your time to try to solve your daily worries?

To gain control over your fears, you must get down to what you’re terrified of. Most people’s worst fear is getting fired. However, is getting fired that bad? You’re skillful and valuable enough to get work someplace else, right? The real worry is feeling embarrassed from losing your job or fear of the inability to pay rent because you are living check to check and you need this job. When you gain control of what you really fear, you can solve the right problems at the moment instead of trying to figure out your life at every waking moment. Life is lived moment by moment.

What’s the worst that could happen?

The best way to get through analysis paralysis is to cut right to the question, “What’s the worst that can happen?”; then decide if you’re willing to live with the worst case scenario. The answer is usually yes because you’ve lived through challenging situations before. The pain of the worst thing that could happen won’t feel good, but you will get through it because you are resilient.

Overthinking is the thief of freedom and joy; start implementing one of these tools I’ve mentioned to help bring you back to the present moment so that you can live a happy and courageous life.