Anxiety And Overthinking Quotes

You’re overthinking it.’ ‘I have anxiety. I have no other type of thinking available.

Sensitive people either love deeply or they regret deeply. There really is no middle ground because they live in passionate extremes.

Possibly I was overthinking this. I do that; it’s the anxiety that comes with being a part-organic murderbot. The upside was paranoid attention to detail. The downside was also paranoid attention to detail.

Head Vs Heart: A crowded mind Leaves no space For a peaceful heart

While focusing on the present moment, we soothe our minds and construe our intuition and inner wisdom. Our mindfulness allows us to access lower levels of awareness and gain insight into our reflections and emotions. At the same time, it lessens overthinking and anxiety. (“The infinite Wisdom of Meditation“)

If you're stressing over happiness, you're doing it wrong!

Now that your worry has proved such an unlucrative business, Why not find a better job?

The more you rationalize, the more you move farther away from your authentic self.

They say, "Look before you leap." So look. But do not look for too long. Do not look into the void of uncertainty trying to predict each and every possible outcome, to evaluate every possible mistake, to prevent each possible failure. Look for the opportunity to leap, and leap faster than your fear can grab you. Leap before you talk yourself out of it, before you convince yourself to set up a temporary camp that turns into a permanent delay on your journey into your own heart.

I understand that your brain is large and perpetually at war with itself

If you want to conquer overthinking, bring your mind to the present moment and reconnect it with the immediate world.

The best way to stop overthinking is conscious micro action meditation ( laghu jnana kriya).

We were made to be distracted by life, by story.

Remember, the talking about the thing isn't the thing. Doing the thing is the thing.

Don't dull the voice of your heart just to please your brain As it swells into overthought and the desire to be right Switch on the light of your inner lamp. Listen to your heart so you can feel from your soul Don’t discount your heart to make your logic fit.

Overthinking is not a disease; it is due to the underuse of your creative power.

We are trying to divide the cake, which is not even baked.

Overthinking can lead to worrying which leads to anxiety. Anxiety can at times be crippling, leave people frozen and unable to act. Overthinking can also lead to depression. Either of these can leave you unable to focus, feeling hopeless, and irritable.

It's tempting to start each sentence with an apology or disclaimer. To preface everything with "In my life I've found" so that people can't yell at me for being wrong (I often am) or misinformed (sure) or overly emotional (HOW DARE YOU). ... That's one of the frightening things about writing a book that no one ever tells you. You have to pin down your thoughts and opinions and then they exist on a page, ungrowing, forever.

We all know that feeling of being lonely in the whole damn world, despite the number of people around us. We are alone, in our own company. Surrounded by our thoughts and no superpower in the entire universe can help us to get rid of them. We cannot escape them just as we can’t stop our own imagination. We overthink non-stop. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it.

Less thinking, more living.

Do not let your mind kill the fun. दिमाग़ को मौजें रोकने न दो

Thinking too deeply Will only drown me.

So the next time someone abruptly ends things and it stings more than you’d expect, try to remember that losing the possibility of something can be just as painful as losing the actual thing.

Anxiety I struggle with things that are as easy to others as breathing. Like breathing. Like answering the phone. Or sending that email I have been meaning to for weeks. I panic when I am asked out to dinner, even if it’s with someone I really want to see. It’s hard for me to commit to anything, and when I do, I overthink it until my brain tells me I have made a mistake, like a rat caught in a maze, trying to claw its way out. I don’t know why I am like this. People ask me why I can’t do anything without jumping through a thousand thoughts, like hoops. But sometimes I wonder if my inability to function in the real world is really such a bad thing. I wonder if that’s why I’ve spent so much time sheltered in my imagination. And because I can’t live in the real world, I create worlds to belong to. And I wonder if the very thing I’ve always been told is my weakness, has all along, been my strength.

Information transmission research suggests that folks with higher anxiety are quicker to engage with, and slower to disengage from, negative information; so "as a trait and state," anxiety itself perpetuates paranoid thinking.

Because facts are information we can learn from to adjust or inform our behavior in the future. Thoughts, on the other hand, hold the same weight as dreams. They’re in our brain, so they seem real, but they’re not. They’re quite literally figments of our imagination.

In other words, though it might not feel like it in the moment, a big cause of anxiety can come down to intrinsic factors within you as an individual.

Avoid perfectionism. It often leads to decision-paralysis and excessive procrastination.

Nothing happens by overthinking; then why stress? Is it too hard to sit down and relax!

The ancient Stoics understood these principles well, with Epictetus saying, “Just keep in mind: the more we value things outside our control, the less control we have.” We have power over our minds, not outside events. So, if we continue to focus on outside events that we don’t have power over, the conclusion is obvious—we repeatedly experience powerlessness and therefore anxiety.

Stress and anxiety are not the same thing. Psychologist Dr. Sarah Edelman explains that stress is something in the environment, an external pressure on us, whereas anxiety is our internal experience of this pressure.

Overthinking leads to stress, anxiety, depression, and other mood disorders. Over-thinkers constantly stress about their responsibilities, if they are good people, if they are making the right choices, and whether or not they are productive or unproductive.

The thought behind worrying that causes so much anxiety is that people cannot accept one simple truth: We do not have control over certain things that happen in our lives.

You deserve to be with someone who respects you enough to also respect your distress, even if they don’t understand it.

Nothing happens by overthinking; then why stress? Is it too hard to sit down and relax?

She was going to lose her visa and her only source of income and move back to Canada, where it snowed all the time and people ate moose heart and—

LIFE WOULD HAVE BEEN A MIRACLE IF MEMORIES COULD BE CONTROLLED ज़िंदा रहना जैसे जादू होता क़ाश के याद पर क़ाबू होता

In conclusion, your worries lead to fears, which gives you anxiety. When you get anxious, you forget to use logic, and then worry takes over and sends you into a spiral of out-of-control thinking.

(Possibly I was overthinking this. I do that; it’s the anxiety that comes with being a part-organic murderbot. The upside was paranoid attention to detail. The downside was also paranoid attention to detail.)

And then she felt her blood pulsate in her eyelids, which couldn't be healthy, but— Yes. Yes! She had a taker. Almost. Probably? Maybe. Definitely maybe. Tom Benton had said “good.” He had said that it sounded “good.” It had to be a “good” sign, right?

Sam leans forward. "But then again I feel bad for feeling bad, if that makes any sense," she says. "It's kind of not fair for us to feel guilty for getting what we deserve. We work hard." It takes a minute for Sam's words to sink in. I have never thought about my deserving the good things that have happened in my life.

If you have an open wound, someone only needs to flick you for the pain to be excruciating. It doesn’t mean they are stronger than anyone else or they are your one true love. I know this conflicts with a lot of movies and books that glorify pain, but try to trust me. Love doesn’t have to be hard, despite what your societally influenced brain tells you.

When you relax, your heart rate, breathing, and blood pressure drop; your digestion and blood sugar levels improve; you moderate stress hormones in the body; you reduce fatigue and muscle pain; and you increase concentration, good sleep, and confidence. And all this spells less anxiety and rumination. Combined with other techniques in this book, relaxation is a powerful tool for mitigating the stress of living.

I thought about starting Year 12 and all the things that I needed to do and all the new people I might have to meet and all the people I would have to talk to and I caught a reflection of myself in the Waterstones window and realised then that most of my face was covered up and who in the name of God would want to talk to me like that and I started to feel all of this hair on my forehead and my cheeks and how it plastered my shoulders and back and I felt it creeping around me like worms, choking me to death.

For many of my clients, they know something is off when they meet a person who they genuinely like and can see a future with, but their brain begins sending warning signals as if there is a major threat. They start wondering hundreds of times a day, But do I really like them? Are they really attractive enough to me? This dissonance is a dead giveaway that there could be some anxiety at play. It’s not that you have to like every person who is good for you, but generally a good person doesn’t make a neurotypical brain fire off in quite this way.

A lot of times a new relationship might feel less exciting simply because it’s healthy! There isn’t the agonizing push and pull you had with that jerk who didn’t want to commit but liked to Netflix and chill occasionally. You’re not experiencing a roller coaster of emotions every twelve hours for days on end. You’re not so confused about their intentions that you’re rereading every text conversation fifty times. So your OCD or anxiety tries to make sense of this big change and falsely decides, “You don’t like this new person enough.” When in reality, drama does not equal love. Oftentimes, it means the exact opposite.

It was too much of a gear change back then in the half an hour desperately trying to put the brakes on my frantic overthinking only made things worse. So did the acute awareness that everyone else seem to be able to do something that I couldn’t. But in that moment in the scout hall with the sun streaming in, I touched a still, settled, vast, spacious, magnificent knowing at my core. It was only for a few delicate moments, but there was no going back. The scab was removed and the rawness - the “Something Else” I’d been looking for - was finally exposed. I call it the Something Else because there’s no other way of describing this yearning - this indescribable thing or place or energy I’d been looking for - that came before words. But now I’d touched it. And goddamn it I wanted to touch it again.

God was still smiling when he went into the guest room for his suitcase. He looked in the closet and under the perfectly made bed. He even pulled out the drawers of the one armoire on the far side of the room, but couldn’t find it. He was about to go back downstairs and ask Day when he turned down the long hall and walked into Day’s master bedroom. His suitcase was tucked neatly in the corner. He pulled it out but immediately knew it was empty. He looked in the first dresser but those were Day’s clothes. The second identical dresser was on the other side and God did a double take at his few toiletries that were neatly aligned on top. God rubbed his hand on the smooth surface and felt his heart clench at how domestic this looked. His and his dressers…really. God yanked off his T-shirt and threw it in the hamper along with Day’s items. He washed up quickly and went back to his dresser to put on a clean shirt. His mouth dropped when he pulled out the dresser drawer. His shirts were neatly folded and placed in an organized arrangement. God went through all five drawers. His underwear, socks, shirts, sweats, all arranged neatly and in its own place. He dropped down on the bed and thought for a minute. At first he was joking, but Day really was domesticating him. Was God ready for that? Sure he loved Day, he’d take a bullet for him, but was he ready to play house? He pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and middle finger at the slight tension forming behind his eyes. God had been completely on his own since he was eighteen. He’d never shared space with anyone—hell, no one had ever wanted to. Fuck. Just last night Day was getting ready to fuck mini Justin Bieber, now he was cooking and cleaning for him and doing his damn laundry. He tried his best to shake off his anxiety. He never used the word love lightly. He meant what he’d said last night. God had only loved three people his entire life and for the past four years only one of them returned that love. Should he really tuck tail and run just because this was new territory? Hell no. All he did was unpack my suitcase. No big deal. He was just being hospitable. Damn sure is better than that seedy hotel. “My boyfriend’s just trying to make me comfortable.” He smirked and tried the term on his tongue again. “I have a boyfriend.” “Get your ass down here and stop overthinking shit! Dinner is getting cold!” Day yelled from the bottom of the stairs.

He took a breath. He could feel his anxiety fade; he could feel himself returning to who he was. 'But would you sing with me?' Every morning for the past two months, they had been singing with each other in preparation for Duets. In the film, his character and the character's wife led an annual Christmas pageant, and both he and the actress playing his wife would be performing their own vocals. The director had sent him a list of songs to work on, and Jude had been practicing with him: Jude took the melody, and he took the harmony. 'Sure,' Jude said. 'Our usual?' For the past week, they'd been working on 'Adeste Fideles,' which he would have to sing a cappella, and for the past week, he'd been pitching sharp at the exact same point, at 'Venite adoremus,' right in the first stanza. He'd wince every time he did it, hearing the error, and Jude would shake his head at him and keep going, and he'd follow him until the end. 'You're overthinking it,' Jude would say. 'When you go sharp, its because you're concentrating too hard on staying on key; just don't think about it, Willem, and you'll get it.' That morning, though, he felt certain he'd get it right. He gave Jude the bunch of herbs, which he was still holding, and Jude thanked him, pinching its little purple flowers between his fingers to release its perfume. 'I think it's a kind of perilla,' he said, and held his fingers up for Willem to smell. 'Nice,' he said, and they smiled at each other. And so Jude began, and he followed, and he made it through without going sharp. And at the end of the song, just after the last note, Jude immediately began singing the next song on the list, 'For Unto Us a Child Is Born,' and after that, 'Good King Wenceslas,' and again and again, Willem followed. His voice wasn't as full as Jude's, but he could tell in those moments that it was good enough, that it was maybe better than good enough: he could tell it sounded better with Jude's, and he closed his eyes and let himself appreciate it. They were still singing when the doorbell chimed with their breakfast, but as he was standing, Jude put his hand on his wrist, and they remained there, Jude sitting, he standing, until they had sung the last words of the song, and only after they had finished did he go to answer the door. Around him, the room was redolent of the unknown herb he'd found, green and fresh and yet somehow familiar, like something he hadn't known he had liked until it had appeared, suddenly and unexpectedly, in his life.

Turning Rejection Around What if your friendly, hopeful conversation starter is not met with signals of approval or interest? If the person you approach is fidgety, avoids eye contact, appears uneasy, and exhibits none of the signals of welcome, chances are he or she is not interested in interaction—at least not at that moment. The first thing to do is slow down. Be patient, and give the person time to relax with you. If you present yourself as relaxed and open to whatever develops (whether a good conversation, a valuable working relationship, even friendship or romance), your companion may in time relax too. Use your verbal skills to create an interesting conversation and a sense of ease to break the tension. Don’t pressure yourself to be able to define a relationship from the first meeting. Keep your expectations general, and remember the playfulness factor. Enjoy someone’s company with no strings attached. Don’t fabricate obligations where none exist. It may take several conversations for a relationship to develop. If you had hoped for romance but the feelings appear not to be reciprocated, switch your interest to friendship, which has its own rich rewards. What if you are outright rejected? Rejection at any point—at first meeting, during a date, or well into a relationship—can be painful and difficult for most of us. But there are ways to prevent it from being an all-out failure. One thing I like to tell my clients is that the Chinese word for failure can be interpreted to mean “opportunity.” And opportunities, after all, are there for the taking. It all depends on how you perceive things. There is a technique you can borrow from salespeople to counter your feelings of rejection. High-earning salespeople know that you can’t succeed without being turned down at least occasionally. Some even look forward to rejection, because they know that being turned down this time brings them that much closer to succeeding next time around. They may even learn something in the process. So keep this in mind as you experiment with your new, social self: Hearing a no now may actually bring you closer to the bigger and better yes that is soon to happen! Apply this idea as you practice interacting: Being turned down at any point in the process helps you to learn a little more—about how to approach a stranger, have a conversation, make plans, go on a date, or move toward intimacy. If you learn something positive from the experience, you can bring that with you into your next social situation. Just as in sales, the payoff in either romance or friendship is worth far more than the possible downfall or minor setback of being turned down. A note on self-esteem: Rejection can hurt, but it certainly does not have to be devastating. It’s okay to feel disappointed when we do not get the reaction we want. But all too often, people overemphasize the importance or meaning of rejection—especially where fairly superficial interactions such as a first meeting or casual date are concerned. Here are some tips to keep rejection in perspective: -Don’t overthink it. Overanalysis will only increase your anxiety. -Keep the feelings of disappointment specific to the rejection situation at hand. Don’t say, “No one ever wants to talk to me.” Say, “Too bad the chemistry wasn’t right for both of us.” -Learn from the experience. Ask yourself what you might have done differently, if anything, but then move on. Don’t beat yourself up about it. If those thoughts start, use your thought-stopping techniques (p. 138) to control them. -Use your “Adult” to look objectively at what happened. Remember, rejecting your offer of conversation or an evening out does not mean rejecting your whole “being.” You must continue to believe that you have something to offer, and that there are open, available people who would like to get to know you.

There are three categories of criteria that an individual must meet in order to be diagnosed with ASD. The categories are listed below along with the typical traits, which may indicate whether the individual needs further assessment: 1.Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across contexts, not accounted for by general developmental delays: lack of friends and social life friends often much older or younger mumbling and not completing sentences issues with social rules (such as staring at other people) inability to understand jokes and the benefit of ‘small talk’ introverted (shy) and socially awkward inability to understand other people’s thoughts and feelings uncomfortable in large crowds and noisy places detached and emotionally inexpressive. 2.Restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour, interests or activities: obsession with ‘special interests’ collecting objects (such as stamps and coins) attachment to routines and rituals ability to focus on a single task for long periods eccentric or unorthodox behaviour non-conformist and distrusting of authority difficulty following illogical conventions attracted to foreign cultures affinity with nature and animals support for victims of injustice, underdogs and scapegoats. 3.Restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour, interests or activities: inappropriate emotional responses victimised or bullied at school, work and home overthinking and constant logical analysis spending much time alone strange laugh or cackle inability to make direct eye contact when talking highly sensitive to light, sound, taste, smell and touch uncoordinated and clumsy with poor posture difficulty coping with change adept at abstract thinking ability to process data sets logically and notice patterns or trends truthful, naïve and often gullible slow mental processing and vulnerable to mental exhaustion intellectual and ungrounded rather than intuitive and instinctive problems with anxiety and sleeping visual memory.

Just like with ROCD, an easy way to see if your anxiety is valid or harmful is to examine the content of the anxiety. Is it based on something that is actually happening, or is it future-based? If it’s not based on the present, you’re simply fortune-telling and catastrophizing. In those cases, as Robin puts it, it’s important to remind your anxiety that “these are just stories you’re making up. You could believe them, but it’s going to cost you.

Your potential partner is an outstretched hand that can help bring you to shore. But you can only reach out and successfully grab this hand if you’re already almost on land. If you’re thirty feet out, your partner can’t help you, even if you both really want them to be able to. No one’s arms are that long, even if your partner is very good-looking and tall. You’ve got to get twenty-eight feet closer on your own (and/or with the help of mental health professionals/medication/psychoeducation/meditation/coping skills/mindfulness—you get it!). Only then can the help they are offering actually reach you and make a difference.

I think we can all agree that romantic relationships are challenging for everyone. But when you throw anxiety, OCD, and/or depression into the mix, the idea of “happily ever after” might feel more like a propaganda campaign than something actually achievable.

Overthinking is a cyclical and dangerous cycle. It makes you feel stuck (a concept known as “analysis paralysis”) because you’re creating these endless possible scenarios in your head, but at the same time, you don’t know what to do to make these scenarios happen (or not happen, if your anxiety makes everything feel like a catastrophe).

It can be difficult to identify the difference between helpful and harmful thoughts. Most overthinkers have both, but they may be so intertwined with each other that it’s hard to tell which thoughts are actually helpful among the onslaught of harmful thoughts.

Overthinking can certainly be a symptom and expression of other mental health conditions, such as generalized anxiety or depression,

Try to gain a different perspective of your negative thinking by looking at it from a new point of view. Use your anxiety and frustration as forces for good by channeling them towards creation. Painting, writing and composing music can act as outlets for your negative thoughts. Take frequent walks in serene environments to relax your mind whenever you feel bombarded by too much negative thinking. Recognize, focus on and be grateful for all the good things you have going for you in your life, no matter how insignificant they may seem. Spend some time in your favorite outdoor and indoor locations where you feel comfortable and relaxed. This can help calm your mind whenever you spiral into negative thinking and overthinking. Exercise in order to give your body an outlet for anxiety and stress. This will relax your body and mind when you feel assailed by negative thoughts. This can be as simple as jogging for a few minutes, climbing some stairs or performing some stretching exercises. Practice deep breathing exercises to release tension in your body and mind whenever you feel overwhelmed by negative thoughts. This helps you to attain some clarity of mind.

Childhood development encompasses a child’s growth and changes from birth until adulthood. This process is often divided into five main areas: physical, emotional, intellectual, social, and spiritual.

remember that self-awareness and compassion are key to overcoming an anxious attachment style. By understanding the root causes of our attachment patterns, we can begin to heal old wounds and form healthier, more fulfilling relationships.

However, with awareness and support, individuals with an anxious attachment style can learn to manage their anxiety and form healthy, fulfilling relationships. Therapy, self-reflection, and building healthy communication skills can help you to work through anxious attachment patterns.

For example, if you grew up feeling like your needs were often ignored or dismissed, you may have developed an anxious attachment style. You may struggle with trust and feel insecure in your relationships, constantly seeking validation and reassurance from romantic partners.

Humans have an innate need to form and maintain close relationships with others. Our attachment style largely influences the way we approach and experience these relationships.

Things like the quality of lighting, the smells and noises you’re exposed to, the colors of the walls, and the people occupying these spaces with you can all cause or reduce anxiety and stress levels depending on how they’re managed. You might be surprised at how much of an impact good lighting, pleasant aromas, and walls with calming colors have on your anxiety levels.

do you feel you have difficulty forming connections with others? Do you find yourself feeling lonely, even when surrounded by people? Are you struggling to find a sense of security in your relationships? If so, you are not alone.

Overthinking is a mixture of anxiety of the unknown and already knowing.

Sometimes, all your body needs is a little exercise to get past the initial adrenaline rush of anxiety.

By employing simple techniques like placing a cold cloth on your neck, holding an ice cube in your hand, or even taking a brisk cold shower, you are effectively jolting your body's system. These techniques act as a sudden interruption to the grip of anxiety or persistent worried thoughts.

Love is really a verb. It’s an action.

The longest relationship you will ever have is the one you have with yourself. You want to make sure it is one full of love, respect, and compassion.

So what does the negativity bias have to do with your thoughts? It means that you are hardwired to overthink, worry, and view situations more negatively than they are in reality. You see threats as more threatening and challenges as more challenging.

This is the thing I hate most about having anxiety, it’s not just the presence of ruminating and overthinking, it’s the fact that in the process, it strips you piece by piece of all rational thought until you’re left with just a vicious cycle of negativity and loneliness. You assume that everyone is out to get you, you assume that you’re the reason for even the slightest change in someone’s tone or behaviour. I know it makes me sound selfish, but in my brain, the world does revolve around me because other people’s happiness is indicative of my own actions. It’s almost as if I have a thin piece of wire attached to the top of my head, running parallel with everyone I ever come across. One small deviation in my wire can cataclysmically affect whoever’s on the receiving end.

Obsessive compulsive disorder is related to anxiety disorders, but instead of being afraid, it is characterized by having to do things based on what you are thinking.

If you’ve ever heard, “Clean your room!” as advice for coping with stress, it’s because of this very reason. Clutter, be it at home or work, is generally a significant cause of anxiety because it subconsciously acts as a reflection of yourself. Things like the quality of lighting, the smells and noises you’re exposed to, the colors of the walls, and the people occupying these spaces with you can all cause or reduce anxiety and stress levels depending on how they’re managed. You might be surprised at how much of an impact good lighting, pleasant aromas, and walls with calming colors have on your anxiety levels.

things

Avoid popularity; it has many snares and no real benefit.

Your worth is not measured in likes, comments, notes, or followers, but in your ability to love, be kind and keep negative comments to yourself, take notes, and lead by example.

Practice how you want to say this to somebody. Choosing the right setting is important, too. Even choosing a time when both you and your partner are chilling out on a Sunday afternoon. A balanced time and place. It’s okay to feel nervous about it.

We are fascinated with technology, and every aspect of our lives has an impact. We are slaves to devices that were meant to improve our lives and prefer a fast fix to real-world interactions and experiences for instant knowledge and low-quality entertainment.We spend hours on social networks. Our inboxes are inundated. Our desktops are covered in litter. Our laptops burst at seams with more papers, images and downloads than we have been able to handle in life.Digital "things" fill your time with non-essential tasks and like your home's physical disorder, digital disorder causes feelings of distress, frustration and feeling overwhelmed.

Catastrophizing: Basically, being a drama queen/king. This one makes you overthink and magnify the effects that a situation has on you. Picture the soccer players that flop like theatrical fish when they barely get brushed by an opposing player. Playa, please.

If my personal schema says I’m unlovable or unworthy of happiness, I will see everyone’s behavior through that lens. It won’t matter if someone actually does love me because my brain won’t allow me to process their affection correctly. That’s why self-awareness is so important.

As a writer, I get that it’s hard to make a compelling movie about two people who meet at a house party, share similar interests, get married, live another fifty years in harmony, and then die. But real life doesn’t need to be dramatic to be enjoyable.

I completely understand where our instilled belief that “true” love should be hard comes from. You don’t need to look any further than whatever program is currently on your TV. It makes for a better narrative when someone has to jump through fiery hoops and disown their family in order to be with their one and only. The problem is that these stories are always framed as romantic instead of unhealthy and/or traumatizing.

We don’t have the same worldview anymore. We don’t have the same emotional life. That’s why I don’t romanticize people from my past—chances are we aren’t even compatible anymore, if we ever were! Try to let the fact that you’ve grown be the closure you need from your past relationships.

I cannot stress how much I love the idea of kindness being lubrication for tough situations. Whenever you’re struggling, in or out of the bedroom, reach for some lube, baby!

Let’s all agree to not hurt our partners for no real reason. We only need to share the content of our thoughts if something good can come from it.

Let’s begin with a common explanation for anxiety: genetics.

Our minds can either elevate us or pull us down. Today we all struggle with overthinking, procrastination, and anxiety as a result of indulging the monkey mind.

then puts a magnifying lens on all his flaws and starts turning each of them over in his mind, wondering why he is the way he is, tortured by the fact that he can’t seem to just “let it go.” After an hour of this, he realizes with despair that he is no closer to making a decision about his health issue, and instantly feels depressed, sinking into a storm of negative self-talk where he tells himself over and over again that this always happens, that he never sorts himself out, that he’s too neurotic . . . Phew! It’s hard to see how all of this torment and mental anguish started with nothing more than James noticing he had a weird-looking mole on his shoulder! We all live in a highly strung, overstimulated, highly cerebral world. Overthinking puts our ordinary cognitive instincts in overdrive. Excessive thinking occurs when our thought processes are out of control, causing us distress. Endless analysis of life and of self is usually unwanted, unstoppable, and self-defeating. Ordinarily, our brains help us solve problems and understand things more clearly—but overthinking does the opposite. Whether you call it worry, anxiety, stress, rumination, or even obsession, the quality that characterizes overthinking is that it feels awful, and it doesn’t help us in any way.

Action is a great restorer and builder of confidence. Inaction is not only the result, but the cause of fear. Perhaps the action you take will be successful; perhaps different actions or adjustments will have to follow. But any action is better than no action at all.

In 2017, researchers at the Amen Clinics released imaging data showing “the brains of women in the study were significantly more active in many more areas of the brain than men, especially in the prefrontal cortex, involved with focus and impulse control, and the limbic or emotional areas of the brain, involved with mood and anxiety.

Cyrus needs me. He’s too smart for his own good. He overthinks everything, and he’s sensitive. His social anxiety makes it really difficult for him to make friends, and that’s fine. Truthfully, I like having him to myself. I’ve always loved being the center of his world.

Physical effects, both long and short term, include: Racing heart, headache, nausea, muscle tension, fatigue, dry mouth, dizzy feelings, increase in breathing rate, aching muscles, trembling and twitching, sweating, disturbed digestion, immune system suppression and memory issues. Your body was designed to endure brief moments of acute stress, but chronic stress (stress that is ongoing) can start to cause chronic health conditions, like cardiovascular disease, insomnia, hormonal dysregulation and so on. If the ordinary physical experience of stress is prolonged, the physical effects can have consequences in the rest of your life… Mental and psychological effects include: Exhaustion and fatigue, feeling on edge, nervousness, irritability, inability to concentrate, lack of motivation, changes to libido and appetite, nightmares, depression, feeling out of control, apathy and so on. Stress can reinforce negative thinking patterns and harmful self-talk, lower our confidence, and kill our motivation. More alarming than this, overthinking can completely warp your perception of events in time, shaping your personality in ways that mean you are more risk averse, more negatively focused and less resilient. When you’re constantly tuned into Stress FM you are not actually consciously aware and available in the present moment to experience life as it is. You miss out on countless potential feelings of joy, gratitude, connection and creativity because of your relentless focus on what could go wrong, or what has gone wrong. This means you’re less likely to recognize creative solutions to problems, see new opportunities and capitalize on them, or truly appreciate all the things that are going right for you. If you are constantly in a low-level state of fear and worry, every new encounter is going to be interpreted through that filter, and interpreted not for what it is, but for what you’re worried it could be.  Broader social and environmental effects include: Damage to close relationships, poor performance at work, impatience and irritability with others, retreating socially, and engaging in addictive or harmful behaviors. A person who is constantly stressed and anxious starts to lose all meaning and joy in life, stops making plans, cannot act with charity or compassion to others, and loses their passion for life. There is very little spontaneity, humor or irreverence when someone’s mind is too busy catastrophizing, right? As you can imagine, the physical, mental and environmental aspects all interact to create one, unified experience of overthinking and anxiety. For example, if you overthink consistently, your body will be flooded with cortisol and other stress hormones. This can leave you on edge, and in fact cause you to overthink even more, adding to the stress, changing the way you feel about yourself and your life. You might then make bad choices for yourself (staying up late, eating bad food, shutting people out) which reinforce the stress cycle you’re in. You may perform worse at work, procrastinating and inevitably giving yourself more to worry about, and so on…

You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.” —Albert Camus

And do not spend time in the present taking thought as to the best course in possible future emergencies; have faith in your ability to meet any emergency when it arrives.

Anxiety was a wild beast. It attacked me most in the quiet moments when the world was calm and I, too, should've been clam. Yet that was when my mind began to spin. I stayed in bed, overthinking every aspect of my life. My heart and mind were at war.

Anxiety always lives elsewhere. It lingers around in the past, worrying about what has already happened (i.e., is out of your control, see attitude 1), or floats uselessly into the future, imagining a million stressful possibilities. But conscious awareness and useful action don’t belong elsewhere: they live in the present.

When your device usage becomes excessive to the point where you simply cannot imagine going a day without it, you may have a problem and need to detox. A “digital detox” means you find a period of time where you refrain from using your device(s).

the process is more about setting boundaries, limiting screen time and making sure you use your devices in a beneficial way—rather than a harmful one that will drain you mentally and emotionally.