How to overcome Overthinking?

Asked a participant in a Breath and Meditation workshop I taught recently!

Why do we overthink? Over-obsess over our tasks? To the point that it impacts our energy and focus?

The mind can’t be handled at the level of the mind. If you are going through a tight deadline at work and tell yourself, “Don’t worry about your project!” Does that help? What you try to push away thoughts that stress you, they just rush back, isn’t it?

So what’s the way out of this madness?

The participant was telling me — “I have interviews to do and the previous interview’s result is impacting my prep and effectiveness in the next interview — Because I keep going back to the previous interview and wonder what did I do wrong?”

It’s hard to handle the mind at the level of the mind. This is where I have found breath work to be very helpful! I learned breath work techniques 15 years back and it has stuck. It has helped me get un-stuck from the overthinking tendency of the mind. When before, I had to work on tasks with a foggy mind, now I find myself having a clear, calm and focused mind every day. Why is breath work so important? Because breath is intricately connected to the states of the mind. When we are stressed, we breathe shallow. When we are relaxed, our breath is deeper and more even. Attending to the breath through proper techniques can therefore go a long way to having a calm, clear and focused mind — A de-cluttered mind, that’s ready to jump into ideating, brainstorming and also a mind that’s ready to let go and just relax.

How do you handle the overthinking mind? Do share in comments!