How To Stop Overthinking About The Little Things

Look, I get it. Some things in life are worth taking the time to think about. But relax, take it easy! Sometimes you need to let life work its magic. Here are a few methods that helped me stop blaming myself and overthinking about the little things in life.

1. Understand that there’s a flip side to everything.

Didn’t ace that midterm? Forgot to submit that one assignment? Missed the Zoom call with your fellow workmates? Don’t panic. Don’t blame yourself. Take a nice, slow breath and calm yourself down. It may not feel like it in the moment, but there’s always a flip side to everything. It’s okay if you didn’t ace that midterm. Now you can take that grade and learn from it. Instead of blaming yourself for the grade you got, teach yourself to use it to your advantage. Take the time to study smarter, not harder. Maybe that means changing your study habits. Take it easy on yourself! It’s okay if you forgot to submit your assignment. Instead of blaming yourself and putting yourself down because of it, use that mistake to your advantage. Whether that means putting an extra notification on your phone or decluttering your schedule or workplace, there’s always a flip side to everything. The same goes for missing Zoom calls with your workmates. Take the time to understand that everything happens (or doesn’t happen) for a reason and that we have to let life do its own thing every once in a while.

2. Let it go!

Okay, not like the song. By letting it go, I mean that if something doesn’t happen the way you envisioned it to, move on! It’s no use dwelling on what happened in the past or what went wrong. You cannot change the past, so the best thing to do is to move forward and learn from your mistakes. Trust me, this is a hard one to master, but it’ll be extremely helpful in the long run.

3. Remember that life must go on.

Listen, at some point, everybody has made a little event in their life way too important. Let’s go back to the scenario about missing your Zoom call with your fellow workmates. Before I even get into the topic itself, just remember that missing a Zoom call isn’t a life-or-death situation. Mistakes happen, so when they do happen, it’s better to embrace them and learn from them rather than dwell on them and overthink about what went wrong. Back to the topic! Missing a Zoom call with your workmates may feel like an extremely huge thing, but it’s not. It’s just a Zoom call! It’s okay to be bummed out about missing it, but don’t make the mistake of creating a huge scenario in your head when it really doesn’t have to be. Always remember that life must go on—it won’t wait for you to be ready. Instead of dwelling on the past and what could’ve happened, focus on the future and how you can be prepared for it.

Overthinking is part of human nature—everybody has done it at some point. Just remember to be kind to yourself. Never put yourself down or blame yourself over a small event that happened. Focus on the future and how to use your past mistakes to your advantage. Since the past cannot be changed, the better option is to be ready for the future and what’s to come. And remember, life is just an obstacle course—get through the obstacles to get your reward.