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Thinking Too Much and The Harm It Causes

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What brings about more anxiety over hypothetical matters are thoughts that which persist before an event arises. This event or scenario can be an upcoming reality or even a hypothetical situation. This method of thinking is usually maintained by questions beginning with “what if” – the precursor to incessant worry. Our worry mechanism that resides within our cognition is trying to prepare us for these “what if” situations which most likely will not even come true and situations that which, if they were too possible arise, wouldn’t be as significant an issue as the original worry led us to believe.

However, when overthinking is not noticed, it can lead to undesirable avoidant behaviours. Such behaviours, to name just a few, can include hesitation, physical anxiety, indecision, inaction, procrastination, a pursuit of unachievable perfection and caring too much about the opinions of others.

Our best possible solution is to be mindful of these detrimental thoughts that arise before the non-present situation that is causing us this hesitation or anxiety. Then merely observe the thoughts, be aware that it’s merely those thoughts that are causing us this indecision, anxiety or worry and then stop putting too much attention on said thoughts.

It’s indeed beneficial to be prepared for many things, but not all things require copious amounts of pre-thought. And to attain this, mindfulness in the present moment; the ability to notice these intangible objects of our consciousness (thoughts) can be one of the many cognitive steps to help us out of an overthinking rut.