Simple Tools to Stop Overthinking
Practical Ways to Calm Anxiety and Racing Thoughts
In this week’s newsletter I am sharing another section (with a few changes) of the teen stress and anxiety management book that I am currently writing. This one is all about how to manage your mind, and more specifically how to manage intrusive thoughts and fear based over-thinking.
You Can’t Stop Thoughts, But You Can Choose Your Response
We all have thoughts. Some of those thoughts are ones we consciously choose, and others just seem to fly into our head, or rattle through it like a noisy old steam train, and we are not sure where they came from. You can’t stop thoughts. The harder you try not to think about something, the more you will think about it.
Thoughts Are Not Facts
Thoughts are not truths. Not everything you think is true. We can think of thoughts as being like information to be analysed. As a teenager you begin to develop self-awareness. This is the ability to observe your thoughts, emotions and behaviour rather than being ruled by them. For example, when you are self aware, you can observe the thought you have to punch the guy that tripped you up during a game of football and ask yourself, is that the best option for me, or are there other ways I could handle this that would have a better outcome.
Growing Self-Awareness: Learning to Observe Your Mind
Self-awareness is connected to your pre-frontal cortex. Remember, when your body goes into stress mode, your pre-frontal cortex largely switches offline and your caveman limbic brain takes over. This is why stress, overthinking and negative racing thoughts often go together. Your pre-frontal cortex is like the analytical filter for all the information that comes in through your senses. Your caveman limbic brain doesn’t have a filter, it just reacts to whatever your senses are hearing, seeing, tasting, smelling and feeling. Plus, it reacts to it with high levels of emotion, primarily fear because its main function is to keep you alive and safe.
How to Deal with the Demons in Your Head
Stress and anxiety can make you feel like you are going crazy with a little demon worrier inside you saying all sorts of scary things. Sometimes those scary thoughts can cause your brain to freeze up, and sometimes they can make it go into over-thinking overdrive. Overthinking is when you get stuck in a spiral of thoughts in your head. It can happen when you:
are not sure what decision or choice to make
feel worried about what other people are thinking about you
feel overwhelmed and like everything is too much
have to do something really hard
Breaking the Spiral: Move Your Body to Move Your Mind
The best way to get out of an overthinking spiral is to DO something. Just physically take some action. It doesn’t matter what it is. It is just the physical doing that is key because when you do something it shifts what you are thinking about (your focus) to what you are doing and shifts what you are looking at (your perspective) to the physical world you are engaging with in that moment. This helps to interrupt your cycle of overthinking and gets you out of your head.
Other Ways to Manage Overthinking
Write It Out: Getting Thoughts Out of Your Head
Another way you can manage overthinking and racing thoughts is to write them down. Writing externalises what is in your mind. This moves it out of your head and into a different form where you can see it as separate from you, and look at it more clearly. Choose whatever writing format works for you, for example in a journal, on a digital document or in a letter. Most people write down whatever is in their head in a a free-flow dumping, but you can also record your thoughts in poetry, or as a story, or in a mind-map or doodle visual. If you need more structure to help you write then something like the Circles of Control Activity template, which I described in this previous article, may be helpful.
Have Fun: Relax to Reset Your Brain
If you are stuck trying to work out a choice or decision, then do something you enjoy. This helps to relax you, which activates different parts of your brain allowing you to see things from different perspectives. It also reminds you of what you like and value, and helps you to make a choice from your heart as well as your head.
Start Anywhere: The Power of the First Step
If you have a list of things to do and are not sure where to start, then just start with anything on the list. It doesn’t matter what. Once you start doing one action, the others usually start to flow into place. In saying that, it can help to ask yourself the question, “what could the first step be?” Asking this question moves your brain activity from overwhelm and fear (i.e. the caveman limbic brain) to having a clear problem to solve (i.e. the pre-frontal cortex).
Getting stuck in this way usually happens because you are worried about getting everything right and not making a mistake. This is where a growth mindset can help. The phrasing of the question above is also designed to side-step getting stuck in perfectionism. Asking what could the first step be rather than what is the first step invites your mind to be curious and ponder rather than get the one right answer. This reduces stress and allows all parts of your brain to come online.
Every time you replace “this is overwhelming” with “what’s the first step?” you shift brain activity from your amygdala (fear) to your prefrontal cortex (problem-solving).
That’s neuroplasticity in real time.
Dr Dominic Ng
From Overwhelm to Action
While we cannot stop thoughts from appearing, we can change how we relate to them. Thoughts are not facts, and developing self-awareness allows us to step back, question them, and choose our responses rather than reacting automatically. When stress takes over, the brain’s fear centre can override rational thinking, leading to overthinking and anxiety. However, simple, practical action like moving your body, writing your thoughts down, doing something enjoyable, or asking “what could the first step be?”, help shift brain activity back to problem-solving mode. By gently redirecting your focus and taking small actions, you can interrupt spirals of worry and build calmer, more empowered thinking patterns over time.