The Overthinking Mind: How to Control Your Thoughts and Find Peace

By Priscilla Sky

"The Overthinking Mind: How to Control Your Thoughts and Find Peace" is a self-help book that delves into the common issue of overthinking and provides practical strategies to manage and find tranquility within the mind. Throughout the pages of this book, readers are encouraged to navigate uncertainty wit

• Language: English
• Publisher: US Ghost Writing
• Release date: Oct 27, 2023
• ISBN: 9781962381406

Book preview

The Overthinking Mind:

How to Control Your Thoughts and Find Peace

By

Priscilla Sky

Copyright © 2023

All Rights Reserved

Dedication

This book is dedicated to everyone who has inspired me to help improve their well-being. May this book help you find the peace and clarity you seek and set you down the correct path for further reflection and assistance if needed.

Acknowledgment

Every day, I feel grateful for the chance to reflect on my journey toward a more positive outlook. It's a gift that we should all cherish. I want to express my thanks to the people in my life who are also on a similar path and have offered me encouragement and support through their kind words, thoughts, and opinions.

Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgment

About the Author

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

References

About the Author

Priscilla Sky is a Registered Nurse who lives and works in Northwestern Ontario, Canada. She lives with her husband and two dogs (Spirit and Sunshine) and has two grown children, Tyler and Reine, whom she loves very much.

Chapter One

Overthinking and the Clustered Mind

The clustered mind sees everything as a problem, while the clear mind sees everything as a solution.

Tony Robbins

Ever felt overwhelmed by your thoughts? Do you struggle with overthinking, stress, and anxiety? It’s a fact of life for many people. That isn’t very pleasant, but the good news is that it’s possible to manage.

The human mind is a sophisticated and powerful entity capable of achieving incredible feats of creativity and problem-solving. The mind can become a breeding ground for overthinking and cluttered thoughts when left unchecked. This incessant mental chatter can quickly lead to overthinking, stress, and confusion, making it difficult to make decisions or act.

A cluttered mind is filled with excessive thoughts and feelings, making it difficult to focus and process things effectively. This can lead to overthinking, as the mind struggles to filter out unnecessary thoughts and distractions. Overthinking can quickly spiral into stress and anxiety as the mind becomes overwhelmed with constant worries and doubts. The cluttered mind can also make prioritizing tasks and decisions difficult, leading to paralysis and inaction.

A cluttered mind leads to a cluttered life. Keep your thoughts in order, and everything else will follow.

Emily Ley

Many individuals live a placid existence of desperation. The bitter reality is that they experience dread, overthinking, anxiety, or despair as they awake from a deep slumber. Even at work, they are mentally and physically worn out, with just enough energy to care for the children, prepare  supper, and slump onto the couch to watch Netflix. In the following days, everything repeats All Over Again!

I'm sure you can relate, even if this might not precisely reflect you. Everyone falls into a rut. We accept less than our dreams. We continue working and doing the same things daily without realizing that our thoughts and minds are burdened by the hectic routine. People overthink between those moments, a crucial indicator of anxiety and depression. Every possible scenario of how a future event will go, whether wrong or right, is continually played out in the mind of the individual suffering from anxiety. Remorse over past decisions and inactions slowly and gradually plagues our minds and turns us into negative or sad thinkers.

What Does This Mean to You?

In both situations, people get fixated on things they usually perceive as beyond their control and influence.  Overthinking is typically beneficial. However, eventually, when something grabs our attention, we instantly change our perspective. Moreover, at other moments, overthinking can be crippling. A mental loop begins, and the escape is unclear. Anguish grows as it continues to cycle without stopping. Being burdened with tangled thoughts leads to anxiety, increased mental chaos, distraction, fear of failure, and excessive thinking.

Nevertheless, excessive thinking is neither rational nor a part of any larger strategy. Your brain activity may become detrimental because of it. One Harvard study found that this excessive brain activity depletes an essential protein, which may shorten the human lifespan.

The Worry Circuit – The Brain

Let's first examine how emotional the human brain is and why it develops over time. Our brain is divided into the right and left hemispheres. To put it very simply and separately, the left hemisphere is responsible for language, reasoning, and problem-solving. In contrast, the right hemisphere is more concerned with feelings, sensory experience, and identifying patterns. The left hemisphere is more rational than the right because the right engages with emotions. The right hemisphere is more damaging emotionally than the left. Since overthinking is a cognitive activity, it closely connects with the brain. The action in the brain’s neuronal networks produces our ideas and sensations. Thus, when the brain becomes mired in a cycle of negative or counterproductive thoughts, it is frequently characterized by excessive and repetitive thinking processes.

Interestingly, this can happen when the brain's cognitive capabilities are overused, resulting in stress, anxiety, and mental tiredness. Overthinking is a process that occurs in the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for decision-making, problem-solving, and self-control. When a person engages in overthinking, the prefrontal cortex becomes hyperactive and generates excessive thoughts, worries, and doubts.

The brain's unparalleled complexity and adaptability make it unique, with an estimated 100 billion neurons and trillions of connections between them. It is highly adaptable and capable of rewiring itself in response to new experiences or environmental changes, a phenomenon known as neuroplasticity. This ability enables us to learn, grow, and recover from injuries, making the brain one of the most resilient organs in the body.

A short time ago, it was believed that the brain you had at birth was the brain you would have until the day you died and that the number of brain cells you had then was the most you would ever have. It was once believed that the brain was hard-wired to act in specific ways. This is not true, as it turns out. The brain is soft-wired by experience, not hard-wired.

How Does the Brain Detect Overthinking and Stress?

The brain can detect overthinking through introspection, which involves reflecting on one's thoughts and emotions. When people realize they are overthinking, the brain may activate a stress response, like what happens during a stressful situation. This response can involve releasing cortisol and activating the sympathetic nervous system, leading to physical symptoms such as increased heart rate, sweating, and muscle tension.

In response to overthinking, the brain may try to regulate this activity by activating other areas, such as the amygdala, which is involved in emotion regulation, and the default mode network, which is associated with self-reflection and mind-wandering. These areas help redirect attention away from the overthinking process and toward other activities or stimuli.

You Might Want to Know!

The brain's default mode network, a group of brain regions active when the brain is at rest, is also activated during overthinking, leading to a sense of rumination and self-reflection.

How can Overthinking and Stress Affect our Bodies?

Maybe you're familiar with the fight-or-flight reaction. This reaction is typically brought on by danger, such as a snake emerging from under your bed. Your body produces various neurotransmitters and hormones while you face the snake. We enter a dire state as soon as noradrenaline and adrenaline are released.

To fight or flee, our heart begins to beat more rapidly and forcefully, our breathing rate rises, and our blood pressure rises. This reaction is quickly supported by the release of cortisol into the bloodstream.

Physical symptoms of overthinking and stress include:

Fatigue

Headache

Nausea

Continuous distraction

Insomnia

Loss of appetite

Jot it Down

It's time to discuss your action plan for ending this harmful habit of overthinking since now you know how bad it is for your physical, emotional, and mental health.

Let’s Be Clear Here

We are constantly bombarded with information and distractions in today's fast-paced world. The ability to quiet the mind and focus on what truly matters has become more critical. So, how can we break free from the cycle of overthinking and declutter our minds?

Breaking the Overthinking Cycle with Amygdala’s Response

A perfect starting point for the discussion of overthinking is the amygdala. The amygdala is a crucial brain structure in perceiving and appraising stressful stimuli. It is in the brain's temporal lobe and is critical in processing emotions, particularly fears and anxiety.

The prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus are two crucial brain areas that work together with the amygdala to control stress. While the hippocampus is essential in memory and learning, the prefrontal cortex controls higher cognitive processes, including decision-making, impulse control, and emotional regulation.

When a person encounters a potential threat, such as overthinking or a stressful situation, the amygdala is activated and rapidly assesses the situation. It initiates a response by triggering the release of stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline, which prepare the body for a fight-or-flight response.

Recent studies and research have demonstrated that the amygdala can modify the stress response according to the perceived seriousness of the threat. For instance, the amygdala may cause a mild stress reaction when a person experiences a minor stressor. The amygdala, however, may activate a more profound stress response when the perceived threat is more substantial, leading to more powerful physiological and psychological reactions.

The amygdala also communicates with other brain parts, such as the prefrontal cortex, the hippocampus, and the hypothalamus, to coordinate the stress response. It enhances attention to the threatening stimulus, increases vigilance, and promotes the encoding of emotional memories associated with the stressful event. Breaking this vicious loop is essential for controlling your amygdala. You must be sure to expose yourself to the things you have previously avoided out of fear.

Be flexible and resilient in situations that change quickly by leaving your behavioral options open to situations that trigger anxiety and overthinking. So, what’s going on in your mind right now?  What kind of thoughts do you have? What are you putting your attention on to feel confident? Why do you think clearer than before? What is causing you to feel so dubious and uncertain?

You can learn to recondition yourself and become more accustomed to circumstances by exposing yourself to the things that used to make you anxious in the past.

From Fight or Flight to Calm and Clear

When faced with a perceived threat or stressful situation, the body's natural response is the fight or flight response, which can trigger the release of stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline.

This response can cause overthinking, making it difficult to move from fight or flight to a state of calm and clarity. It is essential to address overthinking to move from fight or flight to calmer and more straightforward.

One effective strategy is mindfulness meditation, which can help you become more aware of your thoughts and feelings without judgment. Reframing negative thoughts is another effective strategy to manage to overthink. Reframe negative thoughts in a more positive or neutral light when you notice negative thoughts. This can help you gain perspective and reduce feelings of anxiety.

Role of Neurotransmitters

Neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin, and cortisol all play a vital part in the amygdala's response to stress. In reaction to stressors, dopamine is known to boost amygdala activity, which can cause anxiety and fear responses to be amplified. On the other side, serotonin can lessen amygdala activity, which lowers anxiety and stress responses. 

Neurotransmitters, including overthinking, are crucial in the body's response to stress and anxiety. When the body perceives a threat or stressor, the hypothalamus in the brain signals the adrenal glands to release the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol. These hormones trigger the fight or flight response, which can cause physical symptoms like increased heart rate, muscle tension, and rapid breathing.

In the case of overthinking and stress, an imbalance in neurotransmitters can contribute to the cycle of negative thoughts and emotions. For example, low levels of serotonin have been linked to depression and anxiety, while high levels of norepinephrine can contribute to feelings of stress and anxiety. Chronic stress can also affect neurotransmitter levels, leading to mood, behaviour, and cognitive function changes. For example, chronic stress has been linked to decreased serotonin levels and increased norepinephrine levels, which can contribute to symptoms like anxiety, depression, and irritability.

Early Life Stress

The amygdala and other stress-related brain regions can operate differently due to early stress and adversity. Research shows