What If...

We all had nights where we weren't able to fall asleep, just going from one side of the bed to the other and just keeping our eyes closed hoping for our conscience to fade away for 7 or 8 hours at least, thinking about the past, the future and what's going on now. Well, If this has happened to you or is even happening, you might be facing a case of overthinking, whose causes and effects are linked bringing you misery with every occasion that you spend all day thinking before making anything. It is because of this that in this article I'll talk about the dangers of overthinking, and how ruminating too much might become your worst enemy when trying to do well in life. Let's begin by highlighting what I mean by overthinking:

What overthinking is?

It can be categorized about the constant repetition of the same kind of thoughts over and over, getting to the point that It interferes with the proper development of your life. Whether in the form of remembering how your basketball team didn't win the league in '86 because of a missed shot you made, all the responsibilities and blame that might fall upon you If you take a particular raise or If your pregnant wife will give birth to a healthy child.

Now that we know what overthinking specifically means, we can dwell upon the most common effects of overthinking and the detrimental effects It can have upon your life:

1.- Anxiety (Thinking about the future)

Anxiety doesn't necessarily have to linked to the future, though in the case of overthinking, having excessive thoughts about how a particular scenario might play out, usually the most negative ones, can paralyze us out of taking action, causing us a sense of uneasiness and stress as we consider every aspect theoretically without even putting a single foot in the ground.

2.- Depression (Thinking about the past)

Equally as in the previous point, not all depression is caused by overthinking, though this can be as important a cause and a effect on stopping us from getting something done, as we'll constantly reminisce of the embarassment of previous situations and in our worthlessness in a particular subject, even when this is not true.

3.- Wasted Opportunities

The most notable negative effect of overthinking, as just considering every option or beating ourselves over the past every day will make us deviate from the path of an actual solution to any problem or just acting towards a particular project, letting the opportunity go and serving as more fuel for the previous two points, making for us less probable to make It the next time, as the weight of the burdens will just increase the next time a decision is presented to us.

I expect that with the information presented in this piece of information you can understand better how overthinking can have a detrimental effect upon our lives, making us less productive and unhappy. In the next article of this series I will talk about some strategies on how to beat this rumination curse and get more things done. Thank you for support and good luck!