Dear Diary, My Brain Won't Shut Up!
Have you ever had one of those days where your brain feels like a browser with 17 tabs open, and you can’t figure out where the music is coming from? That was me all day today.
I had a big presentation at work, and even though I prepared for days, my mind kept spinning with “what ifs.” What if I mess up? What if they hate my idea? What if someone asks a question I don’t know the answer to? By the time I actually got up to present, I was already exhausted from worrying.
Spoiler alert: The presentation went fine. My team even gave me a round of applause. But instead of celebrating, my brain decided to fixate on one minor comment someone made about the formatting of my slides. (Why are we like this?)
The thing about anxiety is that it doesn’t care about logic. You can know that everything is okay, but your brain is still like, “Danger! Red alert!” So tonight, I’m trying something new: I’m writing down everything I’m worried about and then ripping the paper to shreds. Maybe if I externalize the anxiety, it’ll stop bouncing around in my head. Fingers crossed.
The Overthinking Olympics
If overthinking were a sport, I would have a trophy case full of medals. The mental gymnastics I do on a daily basis could qualify me for the Anxiety Olympics. You know the routine: replaying an awkward conversation from five years ago, worrying about an email that hasn’t even been sent yet, and assuming that a friend’s slightly delayed text response means they secretly hate you. It’s exhausting.
But here’s the kicker—most of the things I obsess over never actually happen. I’ve spent hours preparing for imaginary catastrophes that never materialize. Meanwhile, life keeps moving, and I’m too busy fretting over slide formatting to enjoy my small victories.
The Brain Gremlins
Anxiety has a way of making even the smallest inconveniences feel like disasters. I call these intrusive thoughts my “brain gremlins.” They’re like tiny, overly dramatic critics who live in my head, pointing out every possible flaw in my work, my social interactions, and my ability to function as a human being.
Brain gremlins don’t take holidays, either. They pop up when I’m trying to sleep, when I’m enjoying a coffee, and especially when I’m about to do something exciting. They whisper things like, “That joke you made earlier? No one laughed. They were just being polite.” Or “Remember that typo in your email? Yeah, that’s going to cost you your job.”
Strategies for Shutting Down the Chaos
So how do we turn down the volume on the overthinking? Well, I’m no expert, but I’ve started testing a few methods:
The Brain Dump: Writing down all my worries and literally throwing them away. Sometimes, seeing them on paper makes them seem less intimidating.
The 5-5-5 Rule: Will this matter in five minutes? Five days? Five years? If not, it’s not worth the emotional energy.
Forced Distraction: Watching a ridiculous comedy or going for a walk to physically remove myself from my anxious thoughts.
Talking It Out: Sometimes, saying it out loud to a friend makes the worry seem way more irrational. Plus, they can reassure me that no one remembers that awkward handshake from 2016.
Mindfulness and Breathing: Classic, I know. But it works. Deep breaths and grounding exercises help pull me out of my mental spiral.
Progress, Not Perfection
I’d love to say that I’ve mastered the art of silencing my anxious thoughts, but let’s be real—I’ll probably overthink this blog post the second I hit “publish.” The important thing is that I’m working on it. And if you’re an overthinker too, know that you’re not alone. We might not be able to turn off our brains completely, but we can at least learn to navigate the noise with a little more kindness to ourselves.
And hey, if all else fails, there’s always ice cream.
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