By Kamini Rambridge, 23 March 2024
If you occupy the minority of the world’s population that do not overthink almost every other day (especially the Sunday before work), keep scrolling because I will probably unlock fears you didn’t even know you had. Imagine it’s a Sunday afternoon (ah, the dread), you sit there in your living room contemplating if you really need medical aid and shelter and question your life’s decisions because you have work the next day. Most people down several glasses of wine and others sit there and think “what could go wrong tomorrow?”
I was once told by a teacher, let’s call her Mrs Mooblal, that I have an overly active imagination. No, mam. I was just an overthinking professional in the making and you just didn’t know it. For many people overthinking can easily be overcome by breaking down the situation and asking yourself “Why” or “What” is making your feel uneasy. Other people don’t cope very well and resort to catastrophizing (yes, it’s a real word) which basically means, we jump to the worst scenario imaginable and work backward from there.
Let me give you some insight into what the term actually means. I’ll use myself for the purpose of not landing a lawsuit. It’s Sunday night and the sun sets and it slowly kicks in that tomorrow is Monday. It’s a regular Monday like any other day in the week but here I sit rocking back and forth chomping on absolute rubbish to make me feel better. Should I call in sick? Should I bury myself in my blanket? I can assure you, I have never done that, although I might admit (wonder if my boss will ever read this) the thought creeps in every now and then. Back to my story, so it’s Sunday and I’m thinking of everything that could go wrong- will Mr Clementine react badly to my presentation? Will he see that I am actually a potato in human form? What if there’s a complaint I can’t handle? What if? What if? What if? Then eventually it becomes “Who gives a ****?”
Life will still go on. So what if theres a crisis? This isn’t the cave man era where there’s no phones for miles, I mean we have robot dogs and I’m worried about a stupid matter that won’t mean jack in 2 months. Ah, you may now think she is cured of her super power of overthinking but it doesn’t quite work that way. Most people calm down when Monday is actually over and we feel this sense of relief or as if we achieved some rare goal.
Overthinking can be managed. No, I am not down playing it however it can be managed by sorting out the files in your central nervous system. Can I change this? If yes then stop babbling and fix it. If no, then what are you stressing out about dude? Compartmentalise your brain as you would the perfect windows display on your Home Screen. Filter the parts of the situation in order of importance for example, if you have an important meeting with your boss, make that a priority and make sure you are prepared. Do not overthink personal behaviours of people for instance, a co-worker is ignoring you. That’s great. It means you are doing amazing sweetie. I’m sorry but if co-workers are ignoring you, they aren’t at a matured age to know how adult conversations work. Discard that and move forward.
Replace the “what if” with a “let’s see” approach. By doing this, you open your mind to other possibilities that pop up in a day. Discard negative thoughts before they actually become things you manifest and surrender yourself to the higher power. I’ll leave you with this…
“One day I told God about my plan… He laughed in my face”.
Are you an overthinker?
Absofreakenlutely
Nah I’m chill
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