How to Stop Overthinking: A Calmer Way to Handle a Busy Mind
Overthinking feels like effort, but it rarely gets you anywhere. Here is how to tell useful thinking from the kind that only circles — and what to do instead.
Psychology, made clear.
Overthinking feels like effort, but it rarely gets you anywhere. Here is how to tell useful thinking from the kind that only circles — and what to do instead.
When anxiety spikes, you don't need a theory. You need something that works in the next few minutes. Here are nine techniques, why they help, and how to choose between them.
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Walking is the easiest exercise to start and one of the easiest to drop. The trick is to make it tiny, tie it to something you already do and plan for the days you do not feel like it.
Criticism hurts because it touches our sense of belonging and competence. You cannot stop the sting, but you can learn to pause, sort the useful from the unfair and keep your sense of worth separate from the feedback.
We use our own views as a sample of what others think, and our sample is tiny and biased. The false consensus effect explains arguments, bad predictions and why surprises feel so surprising.
Feeling spent after being with people does not mean you dislike them. Socialising costs attention, sensory processing and often a performance. Knowing where your energy goes lets you spend it on purpose.
Caffeine does not cause an anxiety disorder in most people, but it can produce the same sensations and make existing anxiety worse. Knowing your own threshold is the useful part.
Curated by the editors
Why do we defend choices we know are flawed, or change our beliefs to fit what we have already done? The answer is a classic idea in psychology: cognitive dissonance.
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