How do we control overthinking and thoughts?

How do we control overthinking?
The nature of the mind is to think. It constantly thinks. But that does not mean we have to always agree only with what the mind is saying to us, especially when it is overthinking to the point that our thoughts become negative, harmful or excessive.

Here are a few steps that will help maintain normality.
Converse with mind - It is alright to think up to a certain point, until the mind remains balanced and does not harm you. Suppose you are driving to work and suddenly you see a car accident. At that time, the mind will show you thoughts like, ‘what if this happens to us and what if that happens?’ So you can say to the mind then, ‘I hear what you are saying, and I will be careful.’

Thus, listen to every thought that the mind comes up with, and say, “Ok, I noted its contents. Now, let us move on to the next.” Listening to this, the mind shall move on to the next thought. This will eliminate over-thinking on a single thought for far too long.

Remain optimistic. Instead of getting troubled, balance your mind by asking it to remain optimistic. Doing so, you counterbalance the bad or persistent thoughts, keeping the thought process normal and positive. And when you remain optimistic, you are naturally influencing Nature to bring about a positive outcome in life.

Live in the present. Overthinking on a single topic makes the situation worse. You ruin the present and the future too. Therefore, discourage this habit of overthinking by deciding to live in the present. Make a firm determination to focus on the task-at-hand, and this will help remove the disturbing thoughts from the mind.

Break the link of thoughts. Go for a walk, do exercises, practise yoga, help your neighbours, basically do anything you like which helps stop the incessant thinking.

How do we control anger?
Anger is a weakness, but people think of it as a strength.
A person who does not get angry is able to handle the issue at hand with common sense and rational thinking. On the other hand, when we get angry, first it sets us on fire and then we burn others too, meaning infect others also with our anger. Thus, the heat of anger not only hurts us but hurts others around as well.

Anger can be controlled only through right understanding.
Whilst we try to control it with the understanding we have now, we will only succeed in fuelling it even more. For the time being, it may seem that we have succeeded, but later anger returns with even more strength.
Thus, it is vital that we handle anger through the right understanding.

We become angry when:
our expectations are not met, orrnwe think it is a powerful way of controlling a situation or a person, orrnwe believe someone provoked us to get angry, orrnwhen someone hurts us or our feelings, orrnthe most common thing, when things do not go the way we wanted them to.

Now, to overcome the anger, try the following:
Never react when you are boiling with anger. Let things calm down. This will enable you to see things from a fresher perspective.

Try to see things from the perspective of the other person. You may not be able to do so at that time (when you are angry), but after you have calmed down, make a sincere and deliberate effort to do so.
Repair the damage done. Try to explain things from your perspective, once everyone is pacified and calmly try to bring about a positive outcome now.

Each time you experience anger perform pratikraman i.e. ask for forgiveness. Make a note of when, where, and with whom we had become angry during the day and do pratikraman for them at night, before going to sleep. If we have hurt someone because of our anger, then we must recall the Soul within that person and ask to be forgiven. Also, make a firm resolve to never let our weakness overcome us ever again. We should never defend our anger and should always seek pardon for it.

If you become angry with anyone, your intention should be, 'This should not happen.' This means that you have changed negative meditation into positive meditation. Although you were angry, the result began to turn positive from there, as you changed your true inner intent.

These are positive steps to control overthinking and anger and if these steps are followed correctly they will surely bring us positive results. Wishing you all the best!

To know more: https://www.dadabhagwan.org/path-to-happiness/spiritual-science/know-the-human-mind/so-many-thoughts-in-mind/