Traffic jam
We human beings are problem-solvers, that is how we grow. We try to see patterns in every situation to try and find the solution. But not all things need much thought, like taking a shower, buying groceries or driving. But then there are situations where we simply can’t stop thinking, like when you’re concerned about that one snarky text your friend sent. For instance, you have to politely refuse an outing your friends have been asking you to come along with and you spend 20 minutes framing the perfect text that shows it’s not that you’re avoiding them, but you just don’t want to go out. So you rewrite it at least three times and eventually end up calling them because apparently you didn’t use enough emoticons to make it polite?! For such times, it’s better to make peace with the fact that there will always be a lot of pictures moving too fast for your eyes to catch, in this film called life. Unfortunately, that’s not how things usually go down for most of us.
Funny thing is, we don’t overthink about how lucky we are or how amazing our lives are. Nuh uh, it’s always about “what am I gonna do with my career?” “Am I rude? Me, a little ball of sunshine is rude?” “Why did I just say that?” “She is annoyed by me, isn’t she?” No, my love, she is not, or else she won’t be still texting you, stop your mind right there.
Also, the clinical term for this whole process of overthinking is rumination which is a symptom of generalized anxiety disorder and obsessive compulsive-disorder. But that’s some extreme situation and curable nonetheless.
So how does overthinking feel like to you? For me, it’s as if you’re stuck in a traffic jam. Nothing seems to be moving, you can’t move past a car, you can’t take an u turn; everything is still except for the continuous honking from outside. What do you do to stop this loud noise? Do you turn up the music to distract yourself or get out and scream and shout at others or relax and take a nap or do some work and utilize your time instead of fretting?
That’s how most of us feel these days, don’t we? It’s just that constant state of overthinking. It starts from the voices in our heads “Should I even be eating this? What if i gain more calories?”, “What just happened in this movie?”, “What is wrong with this government?”, “If only I’d studied instead of wasting my time on phone”, “What am I gonna do with my life if I keep oversleeping?”, and on we go, there’s no end to it. So, what do you do to stop these thoughts? Lose your temper, take aid of music (solution to my every problem), Sleep some more? I mean, that’s what I do. Dear Lord, my whole routine of 24 hours is nothing but me thinking and then thinking some more over things of minimal importance in life.
Aren’t the solutions to both the situations similar though? Cut off those noises just how you ignore the horns and catcalls of those cars and drivers. It’s frustrating, I know you want to go feral, but will that help you to reach your destination?
After reading articles from Vogue, Cosmopolitan, and various Health magazines, the best advice or self-help tip I’ve got is to stop worrying about the outcomes and live in the present. Limit the time spent thinking on things that don’t matter. Yes, there’s Instagram detox and exercise, dude do anything physical, just get out of that bed. If your mind keeps circling back to whatever you’re overthinking about, take a walk. Well I for one is as lazy as a sloth, my distraction is talking to my friends about literally anything, whether its some show we watched together or some gossip, whatever works to distract me from my self depreciating thoughts. And of course the whole meditation thing, oh I haven’t tried it either but I am sure it’ll work. We will get out of this, it’s just a traffic jam after all, sooner or later we will be home. It’s not the end of the world.
