Control Your Mind and Master Your Feelings

The best thing to do to take care of this is to accept that what is done is done and the future is untold, so all that matters is what you can do right now. What you do in the present can help

you learn from past mistakes and alter your perception of what will happen in the future.

Looking at the bigger picture, watching your thoughts, accepting what can’t be known, and controlling one thing at a time is the first step to training your brain out of these unhealthy overthinking patterns.

understand that the future is always uncertain, and uncertainty isn’t always a negative thing. Control what you can, and distract your mind from what you can’t.

Be comfortable with the unknown - One factor that remains true throughout the course of this book, or just in general life circumstances is that you cannot control everything, nor can you know the future. Overthinkers generally focus on the uncertainty in their lives because they are trying to avoid disasters or solve what cannot be solved. Focus more on what you can control rather than worrying about the unknown events and spinning it into something bigger than what it is. And, what it is, is nothing yet because it is uncertain.

cognitive distortions are ways that our brain tricks us into believing something is certain when it is actually very false. They serve no purpose and are unhealthy ways that our brains keep us in a bad frame of mind, repeating the negative thinking cycle that we have in the first place. Even though the thoughts may sound rational, they are not, and are just excuses to continue feeling bad about ourselves and the world around us.

Overgeneralization - This cognitive distortion may make you think that based on one single incident, that is the way it is, no turning back or moving forward. Meaning this same thing based on a single piece of evidence will happen again and again as a never-ending pattern of defeat. For example, you aren’t picked for a team, or promotion, you may think, ‘I’m not good at anything; I never get picked; I obviously can’t do anything right.’
Jumping to Conclusions - This way of thinking says that you know exactly what someone feels or thinks about you without any evidence proving your conclusion. You fortune tell everything, and just seem to ‘know’ exactly what to expect with nothing to back up your conclusion. For example, someone looks your way and you think ‘she must think I am a horrible person; I know she doesn’t like me.’ Another example is, you anticipate that things will end badly, ‘I just know I am going to fail; I’m not going to beat my deadline; I will get fired.’

Looking at the bigger picture, watching your thoughts, accepting what can’t be known, and controlling one thing at a time is the first step to training your brain out of these unhealthy overthinking patterns.

Be comfortable with the unknown - One factor that remains true throughout the course of this book, or just in general life circumstances is that you cannot control everything, nor can you know the future. Overthinkers generally focus on the uncertainty in their lives because they are trying to avoid disasters or solve what cannot be solved. Focus more on what you can control rather than worrying about the unknown events and spinning it into something bigger than what it is. And, what it is, is nothing yet because it is uncertain

Overgeneralization - This cognitive distortion may make you think that based on one single incident, that is the way it is, no turning back or moving forward. Meaning this same thing based on a single piece of evidence will happen again and again as a never-ending pattern of defeat. For example, you aren’t picked for a team, or promotion, you may think, ‘I’m not good at anything; I never get picked; I obviously can’t do anything right.’