5 Common Sense Questions to Ask Yourself to Stop Overthinking and Ruminating

Published by
Sherrie Hurd, A.A.

Many hours can be wasted overthinking things. This is part of having an anxious mind which never seems to shut off. Sometimes asking the right common sense questions is the only way to find peace.

If you have anxiety, then you understand about overthinking. You know how negative thoughts can take over your entire day. Saying that you worry is an understatement.

The concerns about what could happen, what should have happened, and how someone perceives you are just too much to handle. It’s time to use common sense and ask a few questions to face the truth and get to the bottom of these invading concerns.

Common sense questions that question your anxiety

It’s not enough to seek help through medication and therapy. Sometimes you have to face yourself and get tough with those overwhelming concerns. One way to combat your anxieties is to ask common sense questions that go against your fears.

Questions like these:

“What am I afraid of?”

Anxieties are fears, plain and simple. So, what are you afraid of? What is so fearsome that it’s stopping you from doing the things you know you should be doing? Is it procrastination? Are you actually afraid of completing an assignment while something terrible happens in the background?

This is one of those questions that put your fears in your face and use your common sense to make you take a look at what truly worries you. It helps you see the truth behind your overthinking. Dwelling on things that haven’t happened yet, or may never happen is just ludicrous, to be honest. What are you afraid of? Find it, face it, and put it to rest.

“Is this a real problem?”

I know you probably get tired of people comparing your problems to other ones, but in this case, it’s pertinent. Think of the real concerns faced by early people – you know, finding food, building shelters, and protecting themselves from predators and enemies. Those were substantial worries, wouldn’t you say. Now, let’s look at our own concerns in modern times.

I’m not saying that you don’t have problems, but what I am saying is that you do need to ask yourself how much of a problem these problems really are. Put them in perspective according to what you already have and this will help you frame the right questions and eliminate a bit of rumination on things that, let’s face it, don’t really matter at all.

“Do I need to let go of something?”

Sometimes you’re thinking so much and worrying about things because you have failed to let go of something from the past. It’s true. Ruminating about past trauma or circumstances can take a great portion of your day. Before you know what’s happening, you are growing anxious and formulating plans to prevent the past occurrences from happening again.

It’s kind of like holding onto fear but based on something unhealthy that you refuse to give up.

Take a long look at what occupies your mind. See if there are any skeletons or rotten roots of past experiences which live in your daily thoughts. Take the time to look once more at these things and file them away. Maybe you should even burn them and spread their ashes into the winds of the past. Ha! Just used a little imagery to help you feel free again!

“Are you prepared?”

Sometimes overthinking derives from being unprepared. Even when you think you’ve done all you can before a presentation or meeting, there could be something missing. On the other hand, you could be fully prepared, nothing else you can do, and you still worry. In this case, you have to look back at the preparations/facts and remind yourself that you are indeed prepared and good enough for the task.

Ask this question and be honest. Only then can you see the truth and stop the demon, anxiety from plaguing you and making you feel incompetent. Worst of all, you can stop anxiety from wasting your time.

“Have you lost control?”

Could it be that you’ve just lost control of your thinking for a spell? It’s possible that when you started to worry, you went out on tangents worrying about other things. After a while, you were somewhere completely different than where you started from.

No, the worry is never a good thing, and concerns should never get a chance to run wild in your mind, but when you lose control with anxiety, it’s usually quite difficult to calm down.

Have you come to this place where overthinking and ruminating have run away with you? The best thing to do when you have this question at hand is to meditate and clear your mind.

This will allow you to restart your thinking and clear out the garbage that’s been building up. Questions like this help you come to terms with what’s really going on when you overthink.

Question the question

When all else fails, question your common sense questions. Are you going in the right direction when seeking answers? Whatever you feel you need to ask yourself, make sure you are prepared to work toward a solution with these questions.

Anxiety disorders are some of the worst of their kind. Overthinking, analyzing and driving yourself crazy does damage your brain. It also damages your physical health as well.

Just remember, you cannot get better if you do not seek a way. Many blessings.

References:

  1. https://www.lifehack.org
  2. https://www.huffingtonpost.com

View Comments

  • With all due respect, I'd like to give you y take on the mind and meditation. You can't actually clear your mind because the ego driven portion of your mind runs on an on like a film that has been spliced together with different movies. From my experience as a long time meditator, what I have been taught and what I now teach is to simply notice your thoughts but do not pursue them. This is where most of us get caught. If you can picture your mind as a clear calm lake and each time a thought pops up like a bubble, just notice it and let it go. Anxiety disorders such as OCD can be helped with regular meditation. Our intellectual mind is valuable to us because through this part of our mind we learn useful skills which also us to take on a new job or learn a new skill but the ego driven portion of our mind is where we can get into trouble. This part of our mind is like a herd of wild horses or a room full of chickens and it is difficult to bring this part of your mind into control. We usually have to do this over and over and eventually we succeed.

Published by
Sherrie Hurd, A.A.