Too Good to be True? 3 Steps to Curbing Overthinking

When someone gets a great job offer, that person takes it knowing it’s a way to advance and be happier in their career. If you’re driving an old car and you can get a new one, you get it because it’s more reliable, gets better gas mileage or is a newer model. If you meet a new friend, they could be someone glittering but not golden, or they could be an upgrade from your other friend. You know, an upgrade from the friend that makes you feel bad about yourself and never returns your calls. 

When you’re drowning – literally sinking under the waves – a lifeline becomes an answered prayer. Right?

The areas where you’ve experienced joy can save you from the abyss of sadness and stress.

Well, it depends on who you’re asking. To the person who believes that things work out the way they’re meant to, the lifeline seems like perfect timing and divine intervention, and the very thing that they need to get them out of the rough waters. However, to the chronic overthinker, this lifeline may seem too good to be true and the drowning “realist” may continue to sink under the raging waters, and under their own tides of over-analyzing.

This example may seem extreme. Because let’s face it, if you’re drowning in actual water you will grab on to anything that appears to be the float of hope. When one is introduced to therapy it could be just the lifeline they need. Though, sometimes therapy is viewed as something bad, something that makes you abandon your faith or abandon your intuition. But what if therapy is the lifeline that will pull you into the safety raft of your life?

If you are a chronic overthinker seeking salvation from a watery wake up call, these three steps may assist you:

1. Start with gratitude: Anything that comes into your life can be questioned. At times, it may serve you to be a bit apprehensive and to ask yourself about the validity of an opportunity. However, before you begin to question any situation or person, be sure to be grateful first for the experience that it offers you. There are always opportunities to be grateful for. There are always silver linings to be found. Celebrate these first and often, and then slowly enter into a more investigative space.
2. Hold on for dear life: When a lifeline is thrown in your direction, this is not the time to be uncertain. This is the time to hold on to the things that are good in that very moment. Let’s face it, when an opportunity presents itself and it feels good, that is not a space that produces regret. The things that happen after may cause regret, pain and other uncomfortable feelings. But the areas where you’ve experienced joy can save you from the abyss of sadness and stress. It may even quite literally save your life.
3. Check the manifest: When you are on a boat with several people, there is typically a type of manifest that lists everyone on board. Manifest(ation) can also be used to express your heart’s desires as you prepare for something that will become your reality. So when something comes into your life, before you question it check the manifest. Did you manifest this individual? Should they be aboard your voyage at this time? If yes, questioning if it’s too good to be true is like ordering an Amazon package, receiving it, marking it “return to sender” and sending back this desired doorstep delivery. That makes no sense right? Instead, try enjoying the object or person that has been delivered to you.

We live in a unique world that is filled with equal amounts of beauties and beasts. Your life is filled with people and things that can come along at the right time when you need to be pulled from the depths, saving you and placing you safely on solid and dry ground.

If you’re looking for a way to embrace the lifelines in your life, you might start with a good therapy session. A helpful therapist can lead you to better understand things that are coming into your life that might be surprising to you, or unlike the things that have happened in the past, and they might be causing you anxiety. Let’s face it, the best thing in the world to have when you’re sinking is a hand. No matter what body it’s attached to.

If you’d like more guidance on how to be a better captain of your life-ship please reach out at Tanyika Moore Healing Arts to Tanyika Moore Healing Arts for a consultation or referral. 

By: Tanyika “Tann” Moore, LMFT