How to stop over-thinking
Over-thinking is an imagination problem. More specifically, it’s a bored and untrained mind issue.
Your mind starts with a particular thought or fear and it says “Oh, goody! I love making up stories.” Next thing you know your mind is like a runaway truck - nothing gentle is going to stop it. We need some real force.
On mountainous roads and highways, there are often “runaway truck” ramps. These are designed to slow down a semi truck that has lost braking power and needs to come to a safe stop. I have seen two types of ramps.
Type 1 is a relatively level ramp that is filled with gravel, so the tires sink down into the gravel and reduces the trucks velocity by creating a force directly against the tires.
Type 2 is a steep ramp that goes upward, essentially using gravity to slow the truck, much like gravity caused it to speed up too much.
Both methods are about changing the directional force of the energy.
The same is true for our imagination. We need a force that will slow things down.
I often use the metaphor of a super-highway. A superhighway is a large multilane freeway designed for high speed travel. The highest posted speed limit in the US (as of today’s websearch) is 85 mph on Hwy 130 in Texas… and we all know that on a long flat road actual speeds often far exceed the posted speed limits. When you are traveling that fast, if you are distracted at all, it can be easy to miss your intended offramp.
Many of our thoughts are like cars on that Texas freeway - moving way too fast to even consider taking an offramp. We simply have to slow down in order to not crash on the turn.
You may have heard this before: the mind cannot distinguish between real memory and imagination. We do have ways of “reality checking” but for things that are more nebulous like “people always betray me”, the brain takes that statement as truth and then proceeds to ignore anything that does not match that statement! AND when faced with a neutral truth such as a person telling a story about going to dinner with you, your brain looks for reasons why that was a betrayal.
So not only do we have beliefs that are untrue (or perhaps only partially true), but those beliefs actually impact our ability to perceive what is true.
And if our beliefs light the fire of anger and anxiety, our emotions just throw some gasoline on the fire.
Yikes!
Slowing down is the only way to interrupt and correct those runaway thoughts.
Like the two different versions of the runaway truck ramp, our runaway thought ramp has two design options.
Option 1: Create physical resistance. Put your hands in ice water. Snap a rubber band on your wrist. Get up and move - or if you’re already pacing, sit down.
Option 2: Use rhythm to your advantage. Intentionally slow your breathing. Listen to a bilateral drum beat that is about 30 beats per minute. Sway your body. Sing or hum.
Once you have slowed down, take a few minutes to write or talk about what you wish you had been able to think or say (ie. identify the off ramp that you just flew past). This is not a time to beat yourself up, it’s a moment to train your brain that there’s another option available. It will take time and repetition, but every time you remind yourself of that new offramp, the momentum on that superhighway slows down a little more until you are finally going slowly enough to take that turn when it becomes visible.
The runaway imagination is real, but stopping it is possible. This is the work I do - helping people identify the runaway ideas, develop the ramp to stop the momentum, and explore what to do next.
This process can be accomplished by talking alone, but it’s even more effective when we use simple drawings to help the brain learn faster.
Join me for a Neurographic drawing group or schedule a private session to stop that runaway imagination and experience more hope and peace in your daily life.
