Managing overthinking

To manage overthinking, Andrew Huberman and Elissa Epel in the Huberman Lab lay out various strategies that individuals can use, categorized into three broad areas 1:

1. Awareness Strategies: Increase awareness of cognitive processes to avoid getting swept up by thoughts, especially those that are not productive. Recognize that not all thinking, particularly rumination, is beneficial.

2. Physiological Strategies: Tapping into the body's feedback to influence the mind. Performing physical activities can metabolize stress and shift our brain activity to a more grounded state.

3. Environmental Strategies: Changing one's surroundings to escape stress triggers. This can include creating a comforting space filled with safety signals like pictures or music, which can help one's nervous system relax.

Elissa Epel suggests that these strategies can help in tackling the stress. Often, it's about working stress out of the body or changing one's environment to a more calming one. It is also helpful to keep positive visual signals, such as photographs, in one's environment to alleviate stress 2.

Additionally, Paul Conti notes that thinking can be useful when it helps us learn and figure things out, emphasizing that thinking should be generative, not repetitive and negative. To manage harmful overthinking, it's crucial to align thoughts with productive, generative actions instead of letting them spiral into negative patterns 3.