Day 41: Overthinking Vs. Underthinking
When it comes to certain things in life, people have a tendency to either overthink or underthink an event or circumstance. Overthinking happens when we imagine every single possible scenario and work our minds into a frenzy. Underthinking happens when we do not put enough mental energy into a possible scenario and avoid spending time on it.
I have recently come to the realization that I am an overthinker. I spend far too much time inside my own mind considering every single possible outcome of any given event, no matter how insignificant. Overthinking generally leads to coming up with every possible negative outcome while leaving out the positive or neutral outcomes.
However, there is something negative to be said about both being an overthinker and an underthinker. Both have their side effects that can lead to confused, overloaded, and unhappy mindsets.
When we overthink something, we give our mind too many scenarios to go through. And the truth is none of those will even be close to what actually happens, life has a way of making things happy in a way we never could have pictured. No amount of stressing over it will make it happen one way or another.
By allowing our minds to race through different options and come up with things that are simply untrue, we work ourselves into a frenzy of stress and fear. Most of the time the negative outcomes we imagine happening never will. Overall life is pretty laid back and is not overly negative. Overthinking simply leads to unnecessary anxiety.
However, when we engage in underthinking we do the exact opposite. We fail to think things through or consider different outcomes. We let life happen and don't flutter and eyelash. While is this seems relaxing, we can often miss meaningful connections or opportunities because we do not think things through.
Life is a beautiful medley of connections and different options, failing to recognize these can lead to regret. When we underthink the things we experience in life we can miss out on important lessons and chances to grow or reach new ground.
It is all about the balance between thinking just enough to avoid underthinking a situation and not so much as to engage in overthinking. There is this little grey area that we must learn to work ourselves into. In that area we will find all the right thoughts and mental processes. Overthinking leads to stress and underthinking leads to regret. Learn to look for opportunities but to allow life to bring what it may, it will work out in the end.
Until Next Time,
Lillian Merritt
