Project Positive Living Tip #1: Stop Overthinking



One of the reasons my Blog and Instagram (and my old YouTube channel) is named "Happy Hour 24/7" is to spread ways on how you can find happiness on the daily with things that start within us.  I did "Project Positive Living" on my YouTube Channel by covering certain topics and have incorporated it on Instagram by posting quotes to hopefully inspire and motivate others. Since the blog, despite having a lot of beauty and skincare review focus, is still all about positive living and I realized that I have not incorporated it as much as I should, so it is never too late to start.  "Project Positive Living Tips" are not going to be the end all solution to your happiness, but these are tips that I have learned throughout my thirty-something years in this planet along with my formal training as a mental health counselor during graduate school (although I do not practice mental health counseling, it is used quite a bit working as a school Director) that may allow you to look at things in a different perspective.

Project Positive Living Tip #1:  Stop Overthinking

Have you ever had that moment where everything seems to overflow and ooze out of your brain because of the hundred scenarios you created in your head?  Come on now, let's be real.  We have all done this at one point or another.  Now, there is a difference between thinking ahead or planning, but excessive or extreme repetitive thinking, also known as overthinking or ruminating thoughts, can be harmful to you and those around you.

I may be stereotyping here, but we know at least one person or have come across someone who overthinks every single thing that happens to them.  It can be a physical state (i.e. headaches), a look from someone, a word said, and most commonly these days, social media posts that causes people to overthink which leads to negative thoughts.  From the examples provided above, someone can be experiencing a headache and uses Google to find out the symptoms and five minutes later panics into thinking they have something life-threatening.  That may sound funny, but it happens to a lot of people.  Another example is someone misinterprets the way someone looks at them - possibly thinking that the other either is attracted to them or dislikes them.  Just with a look, a person can have twenty different images inside their head of what it could have meant.  Or if someone says something or acts differently - but without knowing the reasons or facts, people overthink as if they were told that there is a problem (I am not talking about obvious behaviors such as yelling, cursing, etc).  I won't go into details about social media, but we all know how this goes down - one can post a photo of a potato and BAM! Someone will assume you talking about them in some cryptic way.  Let's face it, not everything revolves around you, even if you want to think that way.

Cutting to the chase: overthinking leads to negative thoughts which leads to unhappiness.  Not only are you causing unnecessary stress on yourself and those around you.  It is time wasted versus using time wisely on things we enjoy.  Sometimes, there are things you need to let go, otherwise, you are going to create your own unhappiness and you will be projecting your those negative feelings to those around you.  Ain't nobody got time for that.  I know I don't.