The Trouble with Over-Thinking

Have you ever been in the shower or blow drying your hair or driving while you were thinking about what someone said or did…or perhaps even something you said or did? And in the thinking about it you created a bigger story about it than it was?

No? Am I alone in that? I suspect not. The places may be different, but many of us get caught up from time to time in over-thinking and over-analyzing.

I recently caught myself doing this exact thing. I created my own personal mind-drama…and the more I thought about it and talked about it, the bigger it got. And because I like to understand anything that triggers me, I kept analyzing myself and trying to figure out why I was feeling the way I was feeling…and I also began to analyze and assume how the other party may be thinking and feeling.

I created a whole mind-drama. …And the reaso
I say “mind-drama” is because fortunately it was all just in my mind, and I didn’t exacerbate it by talking about it to anyone who would listen. However, as I’m sure you all know, this can happen as well. In trying to feel “right” with how we are feeling, we often share the story with others in hopes they will validate our feelings.

Regardless, even though it wasn’t outward drama, it was drama all the same for me. I was over-thinking what I had said, and how I was feeling. And once having spoken to the individual this situation involved, I couldn’t help but laugh at my silliness when I learned that she hadn’t been thinking any of the things I had created in my story.

The reaso
I am sharing this is because we need to become aware that the assumptions and analyzing that we make about what others are thinking or how they may be feeling, are skewed and filtered through our own emotions. Because of this we jump to conclusions that may not be true and can be very harmful both to ourselves and any others involved.

For this reason, I am a huge advocate of speaking up and expressing your feelings in order to get clarification. But most of all I think we need to catch ourselves when our thoughts begin to override our mind. It happens to the best of us, no one is immune. …and self-awareness is the key.