How can one avoid overthinking about situations or the future? There is so much unnecessary anxiety among students nowadays. Every student is worried about the future, their grades, their placement, their achievements, etc.
We all know and went through the feeling of being overwhelmed with stress and anxiety, especially when it comes to studying or taking exams. It’s normal to feel a bit anxious and stressed in these situations, but if you find yourself overthinking too much and your worries become excessive then this could be a sign of something more serious.
You have to be blessed with a lot of spare time to be anxious and stressed out. How do you manage the time to indulge in anxiety? I chose the word with care; being anxious, worried, is an indulgence. There’s little enjoyment in it too. I am worried; something great is about to happen. One is subtly sipping some juice. It’s a covert kind of fun.
Anxiety, worry may I say it’s related to narcissism. When you say something bad can happen to me, either right now or in the future, aren’t you saying you are very important, at least to yourself. Some really big misfortune is going to fall on me. Indirectly you are asserting that you are so big that you can attract a big misfortune.
Are you that big? Has anything really big ever happened to you? Then how can even big boulder fall on your head?
But there is pleasure in worrying; this will sound strange to many. But stay with it. There is a subtle pleasure in worrying.
The opposite of this self-centered worry, is immersion in action. Immerse yourself in the right action, and where will you find the space and time to be concerned? Surely you are stealing time away from work so that you can indulge in worries, anxieties, and fancies of all kinds.
Young people fantasize. Some fantasize about beautiful pretty exciting things, others fantasize of scary demons, but fundamentally it’s much the same thing. You’re using your faculty of imagination to gratify yourself in some way.
You have rom-coms, and then you have horror flicks. And one is being played on screen number three, the other one on the adjacent screen number four. The audience is much the same. Someone who could not manage a ticket for screen three, have walked into screen four.
The objective is entertainment, the objective is to move into a virtual unreal world, and titillate yourself. On one screen you have a man and a woman doing things to each other’s bodies, on the other screen you have the demon doing things to somebody’s body.
In either case it’s a bloody bodily business, there is blood and there is body, both the screens.
And in both the cases in either of the cases you are glued to the screen right, so that you can forget the real thing, so that you can forget the fact of your life.
That’s what imagination of all kinds whether the so-called positive imagination or negative imagination, whether it is Hope or worry or despair, that’s the purpose they all serve.
They take you away from the fact of your life, so you’re busy imagining that something very inauspicious very scary can happen to you in the future.
Indirectly what you’re asserting is that presently you are all right, are you all right? When you are saying that oh my God what if tomorrow such a bad thing happens. Aren’t you claiming that right now things are almost okay for you?
That’s what you want to convince yourself of that you are almost all right, you’re not. What Demon Can Hold You by the neck in the future, the demon is already here right now and he doesn’t need to hold your neck, he is within you and he has gripped your heart from within.
But you don’t want to look at that, you want to avoid that that’s why you manufacture fences. Action, work is what we need don’t you know what you need to do right now.
Let’s pretend for a moment that your concerns about the future are founded on facts. let’s say some Grand Evil Army is invading your little Fortress, and you can see them all coming with your binoculars, and you are estimating that they will reach you in another four hours. Those wild hordes, and they’re all bloodthirsty Savages.
They will ravage your Fortress, they’ll put everything to fire, they’ll Slaughter, they’ll loot, and you’re seeing that they are about to reach you in another four hours. Now what do you do?
You work, you work, if the future as per your imagination is really threatening to be terrible, then that’s all the more incentive for you to immerse yourself in the right action, right now. Or would you squirt and brood, four hours they are coming, you know what they’ll do they’ll rape, they’ll plunder, they are coming is that what you’ll do is that what you’ll do.
If the threat is indeed real, then work. And if the threat is not real, then slap yourself and find some work; what’s the point in getting trapped in circular thought.
First off, it’s important that you recognize the signs of overthinking and anxiety so that you can take steps towards managing them better. Some common symptoms include difficulty concentrating on tasks, ruminating thoughts about past events or decisions made in life which lead to feelings like guilt or shame; physical symptoms such as headaches/stomach aches; changes in sleeping patterns; restlessness etc.
If any of these sound familiar then try not to panic – there are some things we can do together which may help alleviate these issues:
- Talk openly about how you’re feeling with someone close who understands what is going on for example friends/family members/teachers etc., they might even have some useful advice for dealing with difficult emotions
- Make sure that your study environment is comfortable & free from distractions (e.g turning off notifications) so that concentration levels remain high during revision sessions
- Take regular breaks throughout the day – make time for activities outside work such as exercise & socializing (even if only virtually!) This will help clear away negative thoughts while also allowing us time out from our studies
- Try relaxation techniques such as mindfulness meditation– this helps focus attention onto present moment experiences rather than worrying excessively about future outcomes
Finally remember that everyone has moments where they feel overwhelmed by their own thoughts but don’t let them consume all aspects of your life! We can get through tough times together.
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