Overthinking vs. Journaling (a battle you can win).

You've replayed it over 8 times in your head, but it still hurts and makes no sense, that is overthinking, an act that seems friendly at first but stresses you and your brain, making you dwell on emotions you're meant to let out. Now imagine pouring it all out onto a page without judgement or grammar rules, that's journaling. And that's where you start to win the seeming friend called overthinking.

Journaling on the left and overthinking on the right.

Now think. Overthinking loops your start. Think of it like a ceiling fan, you're right in the middle and your thoughts keep spiraling like the blades. If you think that's healthy, see how dirty ceiling fans get when they keep spinning without being cleaned. That's like your thoughts. The more you store them, the more your brain becomes weak. Journaling on the other hand, releases your thoughts. It gives room in your head to properly process what your thoughts are and helps you express them.

Overthinking clearly feeds your anxiety like fuel. Imagine storing up an emotion and letting it continue to grow with other thoughts you accommodate into your head, and you wonder why you always get scared over the same things. That's because you lock them away in your thoughts. Journaling builds awareness and helps you track those emotions you are not sure of as well helps you spot improvement.

We all have questions about different things in life, but overthinking makes you avoid the answers. You keep sinking into a deep well of 'what ifs' without ever getting the clarity you may need on certain issues but when you journal, you're able to discover these answers to how you feel about these emotions and what you feel instead of keeping them in a locked compartment of your brain. You get to assess the whys and what of what keeps ringing in your head. Journaling is a path to self-discovery.

Overthinking is noise but journaling is a translation to that voice in your head. Overthinking keeps asking 'What If?' a thousand times but Journaling answers with 'So what now?'. It is the route to deeply express your feelings and yourself while simultaneously seeking development and growth.

If you've chosen to use journaling to battle overthinking, then get a book and pen. Whatever you pick is now your journal, it doesn't need to be fancy, it just needs to portray you. You first need to name the thought. What keeps playing in your head and why does it keep playing. You've already given it ability to cloud your thoughts and now you need to know why it keeps getting interested. What is it trying to emphasize? I advise writing to your thoughts like they a character. You can give them a name and confront this particular feeling. Then flip the script and write what you would say to a loved one feeling this way. Finally, end it with an action point, what you can do now, not later. Then continue to fill those blank pages till you win the battle against a seeming friend called overthinking.