14 Ways to Quiet Your Mind and Truly Enjoy Life

Overthinking doesn't sound so bad on the surface-thinking is good, right?

But overthinking can be problematic: when one overthinks, their judgment becomes cloudy, and stress goes up. Too much time will be spent in the negative. And it may become hard to act.

While every single person overthinks situations once in a while, some people are plagued with a constant barrage of thoughts all the time. Chronic overthinkers rehash yesterday's conversations, second-guess every decision they make, and imagine disastrous outcomes all day.

Overthinking often involves more than just words; overthinkers also create terrible imagery. Their imagination is like a movie-their car crashes or replay painful incidents over and over.

If this sounds like the same old story, here's 14 easy ways to untangle yourself from overthinking:

1. Put Things into Perspective

It's always easy to overstate and blow up uncomfortable situations. When you catch yourself building a mountain out of a molehill, ask how important it will be in five years.

Or next month, even. Sometimes just reframing the time scale and being able to ask this question is enough to help you overthink less.

2. Change Your Mindset toward Fear

Whether you fear because you have failed before or you are scared to attempt or generalize another failure, remember that just because something did not go as expected earlier it doesn't mean that same thing has to happen all over again. Remember, anything could be a new start.

3. Admit You Cannot Predict the Future

The future is not known, and not living your present at your best in tension about your future is the worst you can do to yourself.

Dwelling on the future is not worth wasting time over. Spend that time instead on things that give you joy.

4. Awareness is the First Step Toward Change

Before starting to treat or manage your overthinking habit, you need to learn first to recognize when it occurs.

When some doubts in yourself or your work arise, stop for a second, look around, and check the circumstances. The seed of the change you want to achieve is planted in that moment of consciousness.

5. Distract Yourself Into Happiness

Having any means to distract oneself through cheerful, optimistic and healthy alternatives can be of good hands. Mediation, dancing, exercising, learning an instrument, knitting, drawing, and painting could get you away from those concerns and stop overthinking.

6. Consider What Can Go Right Rather Than What Can Go Wrong

Overthinking is often brought on by one emotion alone: fear. It's natural to feel unable to act when you focus on all of the terrible things that could happen. Catch yourself the next time you start to spiral in that direction.

Imagine all of the things that can go right and hold onto those thoughts.

7. Cease Awaiting Perfection

This is important. All those who are waiting for perfection can stop waiting now. If you're ambitious, that's admirable, but wanting perfection from the very start is impossible.

How could you improve yourself or your work if you or it were already perfect?

Don't you want to touch the sky? If you want to progress there should be room for improvement in you and if there is room for improvement it means nothing is perfect. Just start your work, make mistakes, and learn from them. It is all humans are made for.

8. Put a Timer to Work

Set a limit for yourself. Set a five-minute timer for yourself and use that time to think, worry, and analyze.

After the timer goes off, spend 10 minutes with a pen and paper, writing down everything that worries, stresses, or causes anxiety. Let’s all hang out. Throw aside the paper after 10 minutes and go on to something more enjoyable.

9. Accept Your Best

The fear that grounds overthinking is often based on the feeling that you aren't good enough — not smart enough, hardworking enough, or dedicated enough.

Once you've given an effort your best, accept it as such, and know that while success may depend in part on some things you can't control, you've done what you could do.

10. Be Grateful

You can't have regretful and grateful thinking at the same time, so why not spend the time positively? Make a list of what you are grateful for every morning and evening.

Get a thankfulness buddy and trade lists so you have someone to observe the beautiful things around you.

It is something that one can easily catch themselves doing. But at least if one has a great mechanism to deal with it, some of that negative, anxious, stressful thinking can be diverted for something useful, productive, and effective.

11. Recognize When You Have Become Stuck in Your Mind

The worst thing that could happen to overthinking people is that sometimes they don't even realize it.

Realize that replaying events in your mind or worrying about things that are beyond of your control serves no purpose. Thoughts are only helpful if they lead to productive actions.

12. Keeping the Focus on Problem Solving

Ruminating on your problems is destructive, but engaging in finding solutions is helpful. Think about how you can prevent the problem or if you have some control over it, challenge yourself to find five feasible solutions.

13. Challenge Your Thoughts

It's easy to get caught up in negative thoughts. So before you decide that calling in sick will get you fired or that missing one deadline will lead to you living out of a box, remind yourself that your thoughts might be unrealistically negative.

Keep in mind your mood will affect your ability to judge situations objectively.

Step back and look at the evidence. What are the facts that support your hypothesis? What are the facts that do not?

14. Change the Channel

Telling yourself to stop thinking about something has the reverse effect. You can't prevent a thought from popping into your head. The more you block it, the more it comes.

Change your activity to change the channel in your brain. Exercise, participate in a completely unrelated conversation, or work on a distracting project. Doing something different will stop the flood of negative ideas.