How Over-Thinking Is KEEPING You Stuck. (And How to Stop It)

You talk it out.
Talk it through.
Consider all angles.
Brainstorm why you’re stuck.

Here’s the thing:

Neurologists have discovered that when you repeatedly focus on a negative pattern in your life that you want to change, the pattern actually GETS WIRED MORE DEEPLY INTO YOUR BRAIN.

ARggghhh.

See, the brain functions in the same way your muscles do:

the more exercise any nueronal pathway receives, the STRONGER it becomes. Focus on something you don’t like for years, and the pathway eventually becomes very stuck and embedded into deeper portions of your brain.

WHAT THIS MEANS TO YOU:

When you focus heavily on how you DON’T want to feel and constantly try to contemplate the reasons WHY you feel that way, you’re actually engaging (and exercising + strengthening) the connections for the very pattern you’re trying to escape in the first place.

Do this for long enough* and instead of eliminating your pattern, you’ll actually help it grow stronger.

And so…trying to THINK your way out of deep, long-held patterns and problems… will often backfire

In other words, rumination is a mean friend disguised as a helpful one.

THE ONE THING YOU CAN DO ABOUT THIS TODAY IS THIS:

Bring awareness to how much mental energy you’re expending each day as you try to THINK about an area you’re stuck in:

• that person who drives you crazy
• your weight
• your finances
• your team
• your spouse
• your friends

Are you dwelling? Ruminating? Are you focused on what you DON’T like and DON’T want? How much gas are you giving the very problem you want to be free of?

If yes, you’re keeping yourself stuck.

You’re deepening the very patterns you’re trying to think your way out of.

Don’t want to do that anymore?

Wondering what you can do to stop the negative effects of overthinking?

Awesome.

Here’s a little piece of magic for you: Try a flip-the-switch experiment that replaces your overthinking pattern:

For one month, see what happens if, every time you start to think about your problem, you instantly redirect that energy and focus on, talk about, or visualize what it’ll look like and how it’ll FEEL when the problem is gone.

Bonus: focus on what you’ll see and feel and experience when your problem is gone right before you go to sleep and right after you wake up when your brain is still in a Theta state to maximize results.)

* Some research suggests ~3 weeks of repetition are required to lay down new pathways