How to Stop Overthinking, Stressing & Worrying (3 Ways that WORK!)

hands up if you have a brain that tends to like to think and think and stress and worry and think and think well it's not fun I get it I have been there and today we're gonna talk about three really simple strategies to help curb that overthinking to stop the worry cycle to get ourselves feeling more calm and grounded when we are thinking and thinking and overthinking and stressing and worrying and overthinking stay tuned I've got some good stuff for you today if you're new to me and this is the first time we're connecting my name is Julia Kristina and I'm a registered clinical therapist a researcher a coach and an online course creator of a master's degree in counseling psychology and I work to help men and women get into the crap that is holding them back so they can link themselves in their lives more every day and worrying and stressing and overthinking really can get in our way and hold us back in our lives in our work in our relationships so we're gonna talk today about three really simple ways to intervene and kind of get in there and help us stop worrying and stressing and overthinking quite so much quite so often and the first one is to learn how to or to just be intentional about getting curious about what you're worrying about or what you're stressing about just noticing the thoughts that are going through your head that are causing you to get really stressed out and worried to not judge them and tell yourself like oh I can't believe I keep thinking these things or in such an idiot or just need to calm down or just need to not think this kind of stuff it's not about criticizing judging or blaming yourself because that's not gonna help it's about just getting curious about it trying not to judge yourself and maybe even just asking yourself is this thought helpful or productive is it gonna get me further or is it getting in my way so just asking ourselves that simple question is this helpful or productive and if the answer is no asking ourselves okay if this thought this stressful worried some overthinking thought is not helpful or productive then what would be a thought that would be more helpful and productive just gonna start entertaining these thoughts not necessarily saying that you know all you do is just snap your fingers think something more positive and healthy and productive and useful and all of a sudden everything's gonna be fine but it really is just about entertaining a different idea at least at first just we get so set on certain ways of thinking we get so set on seeing things a certain way that we forget there that there might be a healthier more productive way of thinking about something of seeing something so just start getting your brain used to that by considering it just for fun the next one is that little bit of reality check when we're in it when we're in it we are in it and we can't really see anything else other than the thing that we're stressed or worried or overthinking about and we think that this thing is so awful and so terrible and it's never gonna get better and things are never gonna feel good again and we're just like in it we're in the thick of it so sometimes just being able to get in there and have a little bit of a reality check have a little bit of a perspective shift to see that I'm in it right now and it feels all encompassing and it feels like it's completely taking over and everything and I'm never gonna get out of it but realistically is this actually gonna matter in 10 years in 10 months in 10 weeks in 10 days maybe even in some situations in 10 minutes is this gonna feel like such a big thing is this gonna be this big deal so getting a little bit of that perspective almost like zooming out if you can imagine yourself that you're in it and you're in the thick of it if you can just kind of picture yourself like kind of zooming out and zooming back and seeing that this like black dot that you're in right now when you zoom out it's just a black dot on a big white page that there's all this space and there's all these other things around it so although it feels like it's completely taking over in this moment it's actually just this little piece of something in your life a momentary thing even if it lasts for even if the feeling lasts for a few days or a few weeks it is temporary it is small compared to your whole life so really getting a little bit of that reality check a little bit of that perspective shifting and then the third one is one of my favorite ones is just learning how to get present using mindfulness and so oftentimes when we're feeling really worried when we're feeling really stressed when we're over thinking about something oftentimes it's about something in the future something that we're worrying about happening that we're anticipating or that we're fearing or that we're getting nervous or worked up about and it's not actually that we're in danger or there's anything bad going on right now in this moment it's only when we get into those thoughts about something that could or might happen that we get ourselves worked up so just getting present and this is one of my favorite exercises and for me it works wonders that when I notice myself getting really worked up about something I just take a second and I remind myself that aside from my thoughts about the future or my GU regrets from the past my fears for the future my regrets from the past in this moment I am oh okay and I think for most of us we can say that aside from being in you know immediate or actual danger in this moment or in immediate or actual physical pain or if we're in the middle of something traumatic yeah that doesn't count that's not what I'm talking about I'm talking about pretty much almost any other any other situation that were in any other circumstance that we find ourselves in when we're not fearing or stressing or worrying about overthinking about what might or could or may happen or we're not regretting or thinking about or obsessing about something in the past in this moment I am oh okay try that one it's a really powerful one if you can get present get out of these thoughts and get into right here most of us in this moment are actually okay if not good and safe and comfortable tell me how you like that one tell me how it works for you also share with me in a comment section below how you help get out of your head how what your best strategy is for getting out of your head and getting out of stressful thoughts and worrisome thoughts and getting all worked up in your thoughts what really helps you share the love below so that we can all learn and grow together I'd love to hear it I also have a 10-minute guided mindfulness exercise for you I'm gonna put the link below that's a really great one for learning how to get more present and and learning how to not get so caught up in stress and worry and overthinking I'm gonna put the link to that below it's a really great really powerful just really short 10-minute guided mindfulness exercise that is really powerful make sure you grab that subscribe to the channel like the video share it out share this one out with the people you care about and come and join my facebook group good for me group comm and let's stay connected until next time take good care

Channel: Julia Kristina Counselling

Views: 384,788

Rating: 4.926219 out of 5

Keywords: How To Stop Overthinking, Stop Overthinking, How to not overthink, Rafael Eliassen, BuzzFeedViolet, how to strop stresssing, how to stop worrying and start living, how to stop worrying and stressing, how to stop stressful thinking, how to strop stressful thoughts, how to stop over analyzing, turn off racing thoughts, how to calm an anxious mind, how to calm down from stress, tame the monkey brain, julia kristina, how to stop overthinking stressing and worrying

Id: Das11XZ-hL0

Length: 8min 22sec (502 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 20 2018