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

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If you’ve ever heard, “Clean your room!” as advice for coping with stress, it’s because of this very reason. Clutter, be it at home or work, is generally a significant cause of anxiety because it subconsciously acts as a reflection of yourself. Things like the quality of lighting, the smells and noises you’re exposed to, the colors of the walls, and the people occupying these spaces with you can all cause or reduce anxiety and stress levels depending on how they’re managed. You might be surprised at how much of an impact good lighting, pleasant aromas, and walls with calming colors have on your anxiety levels.

Overthinkers have an advantage over others: they are usually intelligent, aware, and able to take beneficial action for themselves—if only they are able to acknowledge that overthinking is not working for them anymore.

When you forgive, you are releasing yourself from the stress and energy of resenting and blaming the other person.

Adapting to stress means we change ourselves to better cope with life. You might simply refuse to engage in depressing thoughts and deliberately practice being more optimistic. When we alter our perspective, we can see things differently. Is this a “crisis” or a “challenge”? How does this obstacle look when we tell ourselves, “I’m a resilient person,” compared to when we tell ourselves, “Life isn’t fair; this will end badly like everything does”?

But this is not the only way to use journaling. A stress diary can help you pinpoint your triggers, as well as your reaction to them. From there, you can start taking active steps to manage your stress levels.

The classic relaxation techniques many people suggest are no help if the cause of our stress is actually poor time management. Susie would benefit from only two things—a magical way to add more hours to the day, or a schedule that better manages her time! While meditation, stretching, and so on can help us deal with the inevitable stress that’s on our plates, we can also minimize the stress we’re exposed to in the first place by better managing our time. This chapter is all about smart and proven techniques for taking control in this way.

Here is an example of a fairly poor goal: “I want to become healthier.” Here is the same goal, written to satisfy each of the SMART criteria: “I want to eat at least five servings of different fruit and vegetables daily (i.e., each serving is eighty grams), in my effort to have a better diet in general, and I want to maintain this every day for the remainder of the month.”

In fact, 2017 research by Kuru et. al. found a predictable pattern of cognitive distortions in those suffering from social anxiety—and one of the most recognizable patterns was overgeneralization.