Quotes About Overthinking To Break The Unproductive Loop
Overthinking is the act of engaging in excessive and prolonged rumination or worry about an issue or problem.
In a mild form it’s a major time suck and very unproductive, but a more serious case of overthinking can have a detrimental effect on mental health.
Overthinking can cause us to become consumed and overwhelmed by emotions, leading us to make poor decisions or often keeping us from taking the action we need to take.
Paralysis by analysis is a common result of overthinking, where we become so consumed by the details that it prevents us from taking any action. Which then of course creates a counterproductive thought loop.
The following quotes about overthinking are a great way to start the process of being aware of excessive worrying and can help articulate feelings and thought patterns. Whilst it’s highly useful to know you are overthinking on something, if it’s causing you distress and impacting your life, it’s time to speak to someone and get the help that’s available.
Quotes About Overthinking
“You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
“To think too much is a disease.” Fyodor Dostoyevsky
“Worry is like a rocking chair: it gives you something to do but never gets you anywhere.” Erma Bombeck
“Worrying is carrying tomorrow’s load with today’s strength- carrying two days at once. It is moving into tomorrow ahead of time. Worrying doesn’t empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength.” Corrie Ten Boom
“Thinking too much leads to paralysis by analysis. It’s important to think things through, but many use thinking as a means of avoiding action.” Robert Herjavek
“Worrying is like paying a debt you don’t owe.” Mark Twain
“Now that your worry has proved such an unlucrative business, why not find a better job?” Hafez
“Remember, the talking about the thing isn’t the thing. Doing the thing is the thing.” Amy Poehler
“The more you overthink the less you will understand.” Habeeb Akande
“Worry is interest paid on trouble before it comes due.” William Inge
“I am at odds with myself. I will get even with myself.” Vineet Raj Kapoor
“No paralysis, do analysis. No paralysis, do analysis!” Will Smith
“There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.” William Shakespeare
Action is worry’s worst enemy. Proverb
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Albert Einstein
“This is probably the advantage of being stupid. Stupid people just do. We tend to overthink. If we could eliminate the “over” and just think, then we could do, too. Only we’d be smarter doers because we’d be thinkers.” Sarah Strohmeyer
“Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.” Marcus Aurelius
“Most things I worry about never happen anyway.” Tom Petty
“If you want to conquer overthinking, bring your mind to the present moment and reconnect it with the immediate world.” Amit Ray
“We are dying from overthinking. We are slowly killing ourselves by thinking about everything. Think. Think. Think. You can never trust the human mind anyway. It’s a death trap.” Anthony Hopkins
“Most misunderstandings in the world could be avoided if people would simply take the time to ask, “What else could this mean?” Shannon L. Alder
Stop Overthinking Quotes
“Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.” Napoleon Bonaparte
Worry gives a small thing a big shadow. Swedish Proverb
“It makes no sense to worry about things you have no control over because there’s nothing you can do about them, and why worry about things you do control? The activity of worrying keeps you immobilized.” Wayne Dyer
“If you treat every situation as a life and death matter, you’ll die a lot of times.” Dean Smith
“Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy.” Leo Buscaglia
“I never worry about the problem. I worry about the solution.” Shaquille O’Neal
“I never worry about action, but only inaction.” Winston Churchill
“If you ask what is the single most important key to longevity, I would have to say it is avoiding worry, stress and tension. And if you didn’t ask me, I’d still have to say it.” George Burns
“There is nothing that wastes the body like worry, and one who has any faith in God should be ashamed to worry about anything whatsoever.” Mahatma Gandhi
“If a problem is fixable, if a situation is such that you can do something about it, then there is no need to worry. If it’s not fixable, then there is no help in worrying. There is no benefit in worrying whatsoever.” The Dalai Lama
What To Say To An Overthinker
To an overthinker, it can be helpful to offer support and validation. Reassure them that they are not alone in their struggles (we all do it to some degree) and encourage them to become aware of and question their thought patterns.
Often, it’s simply a thought loop that needs to be broken.
Let them be heard, brainstorm together the issue and consider some small steps and actions that can help build some initial momentum and break that initial overthinking spiral.
Sometimes, simply ‘moving’ or making the tiniest action is all that is needed to shift the perspective.
It can also help to reach out for professional help if the overthinking is impacting their day-to-day life. With the right support and guidance, they can learn strategies to become aware of when they are engaging in unhelpful thinking and how to take control of it.
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