The Issue With Overthinking.

The thing with overthinking is that it's our mind’s foolish way of trying to keep us safe, but it's aiming at the wrong issue. The things you're overthinking aren't the real problems. The real problem is just a feeling of being unsafe that stems from a lifetime of unresolved emotions.

Basically, over the years we've learned to feel unsafe feeling and expressing our emotions. As a result, we've stuffed away emotions that absolutely NEED to be felt! The body has natural ways of purging unresolved emotions, but those natural ways of purging them are a little uncomfortable and - over the years - we've come to think of them as threats.

So, here's what happens...

You're going through your life, and even if there's nothing wrong, every one in a while your body tries to process some unresolved stuff you've been carrying. It creates - maybe - a turning feeling in your stomach, a lump in your throat, or even just a moment of feeling sad, angry, jealous, etc... that's just what it feels like when your body is purging something.

But... your mind doesn't like that! It feels that discomfort and senses a threat. And since it doesn't know how to feel that safely, it starts searching for the 'REAL' problem. It starts analyzing whatever you're experiencing in your life because it believes that whatever struggle you're facing MUST be the cause of that inner discomfort!

So, it's trying to keep you safe. It believes that your emotional discomfort is a symptom of some external problem, so it analyzes and analyzes and analyzes the external problem because it hopes that if it can find a solution to that outer problem then the pain will go away.

But of course... that never works. Because the emotional distress wasn't actually caused by the external problem. It was always just something you've been carrying around inside for years and years trying to get released.

So, we keep on running from the inner distress, analyzing our external problems, futilely hoping that when we solve THIS external problem, we'll finally feel at peace! But, everytime we solve one problem, there's always another and another and another, because life keeps happening.

In short... overthinking is your mind's way of trying to avoid (and simultaneously solve, poorly) inner discomfort that has nothing to do with the thing you're trying to analyze.