choice making | The Warm Milk Journal

Over thinking causes anxiety and insomnia. Here are seven ways to get off the over thinking treadmill.

Published March 5, 2011 | By Debra

Over thinking leads to anxiety and insomnia. What do I mean by over thinking? Do any of these apply to you?

1. You can’t make up your mind about something. There’s just so many options available!

2. You worry about how people will react or what others will think about…

3. You stew in your mind and replay a social interaction that took place recently or a while ago.. (a phone conversation, a conversation at a dinner party or at work, etc.)

4. You are stuck in indecision because you want to make the right decision. What if you are wrong and you make the “wrong” decision? Horror! Better to make no decision at all, then, so your mind tells you.

5. You have a perfectionist streak in your personality and want things just so…

6. You have a hard time being in the present because you are thinking that maybe you should be somewhere else doing something else.

7. You are prone to experiencing buyer’s remorse.

8. You are prone to regret.

9. You have a fear of failing.

10. You are someone who likes to keep your options open…

If any of these apply to you, you are an over thinker. Chances are you could enjoy more peace and more sleep if you could overcome some of these

over thinking habits.

But, HOW?

Here are seven ideas on getting off the over thinking treadmill:

1. Stand tall and think confidently about yourself (you are enough, it doesn’t matter what others think)!

2. Practice making decisions. Even if it is something small like what to order on your dinner menu at a restaurant. Pick something that catches your eye and decisively with enthusiasm order it! Enjoy your meal. Don’t worry about the other things on the menu that you might have ordered or look on at your mate’s or other patrons dinner plates and worry that you could have done better in your dinner selection.

3. Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, be happy with it. You are where you are supposed to be doing what you are supposed to be doing that very moment. It is perfect.

4. If you feel you made a “wrong” decision, think of it in terms of you are getting closer to the “right decision”. Be proud that you are taking some kind of action. The only way to really fail is by practicing inaction. By taking action, you are a success- no matter what the outcome!

5. Try this little trick I learned from Eckhart Tolle’s The Now: Close your eyes and ask yourself : “I wonder what my next thought will be?”. This somehow stops your over thinking monkey mind in its tracks. Try it. It really works.

6. Learn to meditate.

7.Discover a passion and then focus on that one thing. Specialize in something. A focused mind with purpose is one at peace and sleeps well at night.

In peace,

Debra : )