Overthinking: It's Not Worth It ... But How Do We Stop?

I want to revisit a topic that I've been sitting with for a while, one I think a lot of us wrestle with more than we admit. Overthinking. It makes you sick, it isolates you, and it wraps your mind in fog. And no matter how much you know it's not worth it, the mind just won't turn off. That knot in your stomach gets tighter. You pull away from people, even the ones who genuinely love you.

I lived that just last week.

On my ride to work, I woke up, and by the time I got in the car, my mind had already convinced me that everyone was against me. Nobody cared anymore. I turned up the gospel music, thinking it would help, but the louder it got, the louder the thoughts got, too. All because someone didn't call me back. Someone didn't say hi. A text went unanswered. And my mind took that small silence and built a whole story out of it.

So I turned the music down. And I called on Jesus out loud, so loud I'm pretty sure the cars next to me heard me. And something shifted. Right there in that car, I felt it: God does not want me living in isolation every time I'm afraid or feeling low. He wants me free, free from the worry, free from the mental weight of dragging the past into today and dreading tomorrow.

A leader in my career told me I needed to learn how to have difficult conversations. And they were right. But at the time, all I could think was, "What if I hurt someone's feelings?" What if they stop liking me? What if they walk away? That fear kept me quiet and kept me stuck.

Then God said something to me that cut right through it: You're worrying about the wrong thing. Keep your eyes and your heart on Me, and I will send the right people into your life. People who will help you grow and make you feel safe enough to be exactly who you are.

So I made a decision. No more overthinking. No more taking everything personally. Difficult conversations with eye contact and everything. Living free.

Here's what I've also come to realize: a lot of us haven't outgrown what we were taught as children, right or wrong. Those lessons, those patterns, those wounds follow us. They shape us. But we have a choice. We can learn new ways of thinking, or we can let those old things trail us all the way into adulthood, quietly running the show.

I don't want to hold things in anymore, whether it's joy or pain. Because so much of the overthinking, the self-doubt, the Did I make them mad? Did I say something wrong? Do they even like me? Most of the time, it's not real. It's the noise we create in isolation, cut off from people and cut off from truth.

We are meant to think the way God thinks about us. To see ourselves the way He sees us. And that is not a life of fear, fog, and silent suffering.

Think about it....

Until next time

Keep your eyes on God, not on the noise.

Overthinking Is a Squatter. Your mind is God's property. It's time to evict.

Ginger

Put your hands up for prayer