Stop Overthinking: 23 Techniques to Relieve Stress, Stop Negative Spirals, Declutter Your Mind, and Focus on the Present (The Path to Calm Book 1)

by Nick Trenton

Make an entry every time you feel your mood shifting, or when you’re noticeably stressed. Keep a stress diary for a few days or a week, then sit down to analyze it and find any patterns: What are the most frequent causes of stress, i.e. what usually comes before a sudden rise in stress or drop in mood? How do these events typically affect your productivity? How do you normally respond to these events, emotionally and behaviorally, and is your approach working? Can you identify a level of stress that was comfortable and beneficial for your productivity? When you analyze your stress diary like this, you are working with real data that can help you make insightful changes. You may even be surprised at some findings—only in writing things down in the moment do you see clear patterns emerge. As you’re analyzing, avoid overanalyzing! Remember that the goal of the stress journal is not to catch yourself out or feel bad about what you discover. In other words, there should be no judgment. Instead take a compassionate, curious approach and stay open-minded. Overthinkers are typically intelligent,