Working with Overthinking: Mindful Ways to Work with the Mind
Overthinking is a common experience in meditation. Additionally, many people who tend to overthink actually come to mindfulness practice to learn to work with these thought patterns. Whether your flavor of overthinking is looping thoughts, rumination, future-tripping, or overanalyzing, mindfulness practice can help train the mind out of this habit.
Thinking is a completely normal experience, as I cover in my post Is It Normal to Think During Meditation? The mind is doing what it is supposed to do and processing information when it gets a break from tasks. With mindfulness practice, we can learn to change our relationship to the thinking mind and not be so deeply controlled by the experience of thoughts.
Overthinking from a Mindfulness Perspective
I won’t go into a traditional explanation of overthinking here, as you’re likely already familiar. I want to instead focus on what is happening in these moments with mindfulness as our perspective. It’s important to note that this is a truly normal experience and loop that happens, so don’t beat yourself up!
When we find ourselves overthinking, there is generally some sort of loop happnening. We experience some thought, there is a feeling tone and emotional reaction, and this feeds more thought. This thought then feeds more emotional responses, more thoughts, and we suddenly find ourselves in the loop of overthinking.
Linked in with overthinking is often some sort of illusion of control. We think that we can out-think something, solve it, or analyze it to the point of quashing it. As we continue to engage in these patterns, these habits get strengthened. Every time we engage in overthinking, we strengthen this habit. On the other hand, when we interrupt the loop we can weaken these connections in the brain little by little.
Another component of overthinking is the prioritization of thought. When the brain’s threat detection triggers, we become very contracted around the thoughts. We stop feeling or noticing other experiences. This offers a way to get out of the overthinking loop: by tuning into other experiences outside the body.
Working with Overthinking in Meditation
There are many ways to work with the thinking mind in meditation. You may have to mix and match techniques. Most important is to remember to explore what works for you. You don’t have to clear your mind to meditate, so let go of that idea completely. Instead of stopping thoughts, we’re going to figure out how to best work with the thoughts.
Noticing the Leaning
One aspect of overthinking that we experience is what I call a leaning. We have a thought that pulls us in, and we lean into it. It often happens nonconsciously. In meditation, we can notice when this leaning happens. We might notice it once we are fully leaning and sucked in. With regular mindfulness practice, we can grow to notice the more subtle leanings, interrupting the overthinking loop earlier.
To incorporate this into your meditation practice, bring awareness to this psychological experience of leaning toward something. When a thought arises that is seductive and you want to hook in, recognize how it feels. You don’t need to stop the leaning. The practice is to recognize this process of hooking in. By getting to know how it feels, we can be aware of it happening in and out of meditation.
Using Your Anchor
When the mind starts going during meditation, you can always return to your anchor. For many, this is the breath. When overthinking starts, we can return to the breath or whatever anchor as many times as needed. Although the breath is the most common anchor, we can also use other experiences such as bodily sensations or sounds to return to.
Much like anything in mindfulness practice, this takes time. As we consistently bring the attention back to the anchor, we cultivate the ability to collect our awareness. Even though it may feel like we take one breath and the mind begins thinking again, it’s not a bad thing. In fact, every time we bring the attention back to the anchor, we are actually strengthening this mental muscle.
Tuning into the Body
The mental loop that overthinking puts us into can be quite overpowering. For many people, getting out of the mind and into the body is of great help. We can work to just leave the thoughts be for the moment and collect the attention instead in the body. The body is always with us, and we can rest our attention with it instead of with the thinking mind.
The breath is indeed part of the body, so we can do that. We can also do a body scan meditation, some awareness of the body, or just ground in the sensation of sitting. The idea here is to turn toward the body rather than stay with the thinking mind. This offers some relief while continuing to remain anchored in the present moment.
Loving-Kindness Practice
When you’re stuck in overthinking, it’s likely there isn’t a lot of kindness naturally present. We tend toward straining and stressing in these moments, and loving-kindness is a great way to break the cycle of overthinking. It gives us something to focus on that is wholesome, useful, and mindful.
When you notice the mind tending toward overthinking, you can leave the thoughts be and turn toward phrases of loving-kindness. I also think regular loving-kindness practice is beneficial. With regular cultivation, we become naturally more gentle and patient with ourselves and minds. I’ve left a short loving-kindness meditation below, and you can learn more on my page Loving-Kindness: Origins, Benefits and How to Practice.
Walking Meditation
Walking meditation is a great practice in many ways. It offers us a bridge from sitting meditation to daily life, helps us practice with the body in a new way, and can help in moments of overthinking or anxiety. It’s an integral part of life at most monasteries and on meditation retreats, and something we can cultivate ourselves.
You don’t need to head out to nature or anything to do walking meditation. If you’re struggling with overthinking and can’t shake it, try standing up and switching to walking meditation for the remainder of your practice. You really can do whatever practice you were doing, just while on the go. Below is an introductory guided walking meditation practice to try if you’re not familiar and I have an episode of my podcast here where I introduce the practice of walking meditation.
Using Feeling Tone
Another way to get out of the head and thoughts is to tune into the feeling tones present. Instead of focusing on the actual thoughts, we can turn toward different parts of the experience. If you are not familiar with the concept of feeling tones, I recommend reading my post Feeling Tones: Understanding Vedana Through Mindfulness.
Giving an Extra Few Minutes
This is a practice that was offered to me by a teacher many years ago, and I’ve found success with. I often offer it to people struggling with overthinking, anxiety, or over-analyzing in meditation. The idea is to cut off the thoughts or overthinking in the moment in order to get the most out of our meditation.
To do this practice, set aside a few minutes (3-5) immediately after your sitting period. When you notice overthinking happening during meditation, you can note its presence. Then, remind yourself you have a few minutes after to do that thinking. You’re not pushing away the thinking or trying to stop it. You’re just giving it space outside of meditation. This helps us return to the meditation, and we can use those few minutes to analyze/think.
Working with Overthinking Outside Meditation
Outside of meditation, there are plenty of mindfulness-based practices we can utilize to work with overthinking. I offer plenty of mindfulness exercises on my website and am a huge fan of learning to practice mindfulness in everyday life. Here are a few that I’ve found useful over the years in working with students and overthinking.
I want to note that integral to these practices is recognition we are overthinking. We don’t have to be perfect and recognize it every time. With practice we become able to see overthinking more easily. But we do need to recognize we are overthinking at least sometimes in order to utilize these tools.
The Overthinking Journal
This isn’t the catchiest name for an exercise, but at least it’s clear what it is! You don’t necessarily need a fancy journal. You can do this with a note-keeping app on your phone or a simple notebook. You might use it at the end of your day in a period of reflection, or when you notice the overthinking is happening.
I like to start with three basic questions to ask yourself.
What am I thinking?
Recognize what you are thinking about. Write down what thoughts are arising, what they focus on, and/or any repetitive thoughts. This is truly an exercise in mindfulness, practicing being aware of what is happening in the mind.
Is this useful or serving me?
Next, ask if these thoughts are helping you in some way. Often, overthinking isn’t quite as productive as we inherently believe it to be. Ask yourself if this thought cycle is productive or helping in this moment.
What action can be taken?
Rather than sticking with the same thoughts, ask what actual action can be taken. The nature of overthinking is that we often try in vain to think ourselves out of overthinking. Instead, reflect on what action can be taken in this moment. What can you do about the overthinking, and what can you do in regards to whatever you’re thinking about?
Schedule Thinking Time
As mentioned with the meditation practice of setting aside time after sitting to think, you might try this same thing in daily life. Pick a time during the day where you can just sit and think for five or ten or fifteen minutes. Give yourself this space and time to think, write, consider, and engage in the overthinking. Set a timer, and use just the time you’ve set aside.
During your day, when you find yourself overthinking, remember the time you’ve set aside. You can remind yourself that overthinking is for that time period, and you can return to this thought during that time. This can help us leave the thought alone for now with some recognition we will come back to it.
Pattern Naming
Pattern naming ties in with the idea of cognitive distortions or patterns of problematic thinking in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). It also has roots in mindfulness of mind practices. The idea is to begin recognizing how exactly the mind experiences overthinking. Most people who overthink have patterns that arise repeatedly.
Common patterns that can arise include catastrophizing, black-and-white thinking, replaying conversations, loops of planning, rumination, and overanalyzing. This isn’t to judge yourself or beat yourself up, but a mindfulness practice in recognizing the tendencies of the mind so we can catch them more easily.
Question Actionability
I mentioned this in the section on the overthinking journal, but it’s a great tool to have in any situation. When you notice you are overthinking, turn straight to solution rather than staying in the problem. Ask yourself if any action can be taken. If so, act! If not, then overthinking is clearly not going to help the situation.
Grounding Exercises
Sometimes we need to simply jump out of our heads and give ourselves a break from the thinking. With grounding exercises, we find some way to anchor ourselves back in the present moment and let go of the attachment to the thinking mind. There are many ways to do this, and you can find some of my favorites in my post on mindful grounding exercises here.
Movement Practices
One of the most powerful things we can do to work with overthinking is to move. In a way, this is a grounding exercise as well. It helps us get out of the head and into the body. Furthermore, moving can help reset the nervous system and deactive the fight-or-flight response.
You might do some stretching, go for a walk, or practice some moving meditation. You don’t necessarily need to do anything special. Recognize you are overthinking, and find a way to move mindfully.
Self-Compassion
It’s not exactly mindfulness, but self-compassion is an essential part of working with overthinking in my opinion. Recognize that the experience is uncomfortable, and tend to it with care and presence. You might offer a few phrases of self-compassion in these moments of overthinking, such as the simple phrase, “I care for this suffering.”
Although it may feel difficult at first, we can grow to respond with more and more tenderness. Think of a loved one or a child. When they’re suffering, imagine the care you bring to the situation. It may be difficutl with ourselves, but we can direct ourselves toward a more caring and present awareness.
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