How to successfully overcome overthinking, overthinking!

Our wonderful brand ambassador Tina ran an epic 14 miles yesterday, a phenomenal personal achievement and one that has made her feel great and extremely proud, and so it should. 

This morning I joined a new group of local Sunday’s runners, advertised through a random post on Facebook, there were only 3 of us and the run was only 3k but having not ran for some time, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I finished in 22 minutes, which many would deem as slow, I know my son did haha, when I got home and told him, but it didn’t matter to me, I did it, I showed up and I finished it and not once did I think to myself ‘I’m not good enough’.

What is really key about both these successes is our individual beliefs – we did it for us.

What tends to stop us taking action is overthinking it, what if I fail, what if I turn up and I’m wearing the wrong trainers, what if everyone is faster than me, what if my wobbly bits look awful…..just STOP, no one cares about these things except you, you are overthinking, overthinking.

It doesn’t matter if you are an experienced athlete, if you’ve fallen off the fitness wagon lately or you’ve never exercised in your life but want to try, what matters is that you accept that whatever you do it is enough, because this is the pathway to true happiness and fulfilment.

The hardest part is understanding this and that’s why we are here to help you through that.

Many of you call this mindset, as a psychologist I call it ‘the way you think’. In addition to your belief system, the way you think affects everything in your life from ‘what’ you think and feel, to ‘how’ you behave and react to the world around you. When you are considering a new goal, whether its improving your fitness, eating well or learning a new skill, the way you think needs to match your aspirations, otherwise you may be holding yourself back from getting to where you want to be, but also from enjoying it too.

4 steps to overcome overthinking:-

1.     Take time to notice your thoughts, what are they saying?

2.     Interrupt the negative ones, where is the evidence that what you are thinking is true?

3.     Replace the negative thought with the truth

4.     Commit to practicing this often, so that the way you think shifts to a more realistic viewpoint

Changing how we think is hard, ingrained habits and beliefs about ourselves and the world around us take a bit of time to shift. Once you start to move towards becoming more open, confident and positive in your ability to learn something new, thinking in a different way can literally change your life, and deepen your ability to take on life’s challenges.

How long does it take?

The answer to this equates to ‘how long is a piece of string’? There have been many myths surrounding the time it takes to shift perspective and develop a new habit. A popular one is 21 days, or perhaps its 28 days, sounds convincing but actually there wasn’t any Scientific support of this. 

In a landmark study, Health Psychologist Phillippa Lally and colleagues found it takes anywhere between 18 – 245 days to change the way you think about a certain task and put it into regular practice, such as eating fruit daily or going for a regular run.

Averaged out this comes in at 66 days, but again I ask you how long is a piece of string, we are all different so rather than focus on how long, focus on what you are doing for you is enough.

Inevitably this shift in mindset will result in you changing the way you think for good. As long as YOU are taking actions at your own pace, and enjoying it, THIS is what is most important.

Let us know in the comments if this piece resonates with you?

Have a great week!

Love SHK x