Helping My Mind This Year

So I have started to have a new mindset this year and I hope that it will continue…

Since I can remember I have suffered from anxiety and even before it was diagnosed, I knew that something wasn’t quite right inside this little mind of mine.

Unfortunately, this has meant that I have spent many years holding back from things that I should’ve done or not been able to make any easy decisions and made many, many E.X.C.U.S.E.S.

But no! Not anymore…I knew that I needed to make a change to the way I think in order to reach my goals and to take advantage of all the opportunities that life has to offer me.

So I have decided to stop overthinking. This has been an impossible thing for me to do over the years, I have never been able to just purely think about what is going on, my mind wonders which means that I think of one million things rather than just that one. I was told by my dad that I will grow out of overthinking and in time I won't do it as much. I've started to stop myself every time I begin to overthink, if I feel myself starting to do it I immediately switch off that thought process and begin to think ‘What is really going on here?’ and ‘iIs it really that bad?’ Like does it really matter…most of the time it is something that there is no need for me to worry about.

Another thing that I have started to do is think, ‘It’s better for me to do something then not do it at all.’ Most of the time, each situation that I don’t want to put myself into, turns out not to be as bad as I thought. My boyfriend is constantly telling me this when I start to freak out about going somewhere, he always tells me that it won't be that bad and it never is. I think we all forget this from time to time but it is so important to remember before you go somewhere or do something that you are worried about, that each negative thing you are thinking about that situation has just been made up in your head and the reality is that those things don’t usually exist. We seem to panic and react by creating all these threats that aren’t truly there. This goes back to the flight or fight thing, that we need to realise our minds do all the time.

My last thing that I’m trying to think about everyday links back in with overthinking. I used to overthink everything I said, every conversation I would’ve thought about over and over again in my head before I actually said it and even what I said it I would be worrying about making a fool of myself or if I said the wrong thing. Now I’m thinking that it's better to say something and act like I want to have a conversation with someone then not saying anything at all. I used to blame a lot on my anxiety, especially if I was acting rude by not talking to people but now I think, ‘What really is the worst that could happen?’ The worst that could happen is that I say the wrong thing and at the end of the day…that can be fixed! Along with most other things. At the end of the day, the people who will get offended by what you say or how you act are the people that you shouldn’t want to be around and I have definitely learnt this now.

It really does help having someone in your life to push you in the right direction and help you to work on yourself and I am so lucky that I have found that in someone this new year. It really has made such a difference to the way I am as a person and I can't wait to see even more changes.