The Overthinking Trap
If you’ve been in that loop, that mental hamster wheel where you keep thinking and thinking and thinking… you know how fast it can start to spin. At some point it even feels hard, almost dangerous, to jump off.
It’s not comfortable. It’s exhausting.
It feels like we´re stuck and we don’t enjoy it. Yet, we keep doing it.
It’s strange, isn’t it? You don’t actually want to be in that loop, you’re tired of it, and still, you keep doing it. Almost on autopilot.
Sometimes it even feels a little addictive. Have you noticed that?
So why do we keep doing it?
Overthinking is a creative playground for your mind
First, I want to say: congratulations, you are able to overthink.
That sounds funny, but it matters. Overthinking is your mind using its full creative power to imagine, simulate, protect. Your mind can generate endless scenarios and that’s actually impressive.
That´s why sometimes, even if it´s very subtle, all this overthinking can also carry a sense of satisfaction, right? We are building, construction all these ideas, scenarios and images,
So overthinking is like a playground for your mind, it´s just using its creative ability in the wrong direction. With a little support, a gentle nudge, your mind can re-direct that same creativity so that it works for you instead of against you.
And there’s another reason the mind clings to overthinking: it doesn’t just feel familiar, it can also feel safe.
When Overthinking Feels Safe (But Keeps You Stuck)
Overthinking often feels like protection, as if staying in our head could keep us safe from mistakes or pain.
- As long as you’re still “thinking about it,” you don’t actually have to take any risky action that could fail. You can tell yourself you’re just “not ready yet.”
- It gives you a sense of control and preparation. You’ve mentally rehearsed every possible outcome you can imagine, which feels comforting.
- And maybe most importantly: by keeping everything in your head, you keep all options alive. Nothing is decided yet, so nothing can be lost yet.
That can feel good in the moment. “I could do this, or I could do that…”
You’re holding all possibilities. There´s an aspect of FOMO, fear of missing out, here too: if you pick one option and act on it, then yes, you might lose the others. So of course part of you hesitates.
Most of us don’t even notice how much we’re circling the same few stories in our mind. We just feel stuck and tense and assume something’s wrong with us.
But noticing the loop is actually the first step out of it.
So if you’re recognizing yourself here: pause for a moment and acknowledge that. You’re already shifting.
Why Thinking Alone Can´t Set You Free
Now here’s something interesting:
Studies show that about 95 percent of what we think today is the same as what we thought yesterday, and around 85 percent of those thoughts are focused on the negative.
We’re not imagining it. We really are repeating the same patterns of thought again and again. No wonder it feels like a mental hamster wheel.
So how do we step out of that loop?
How can we gain access to new, different, supportive thoughts?
We don’t get out of overthinking by thinking harder. If that worked, it would’ve worked already.
The answer lies somewhere else: in the body.
Because we’re not just a mind. We’re a whole body too.
Your body stores memory, stress, emotional charge, and also intuition, that quiet sense of “this is right for me” or “this doesn’t feel good.”
The problem is: most of us aren’t taught to listen to that. We’re taught to stay in logic, to analyse, to push.
This is for different reasons, one of them is that all of our wisdom is buried under noise and stress, pressure, expectations and what not
And our thoughts are just so much more familiar. We are so used to thinking and analysing, that it can feel unsafe and counter intuitive to listen to anything other than our mind / thoughts, right?
And that’s exactly why feeling safe matters so much. Without a sense of safety, the body can’t open, and the mind won’t trust it. Before we can listen, we need to feel safe enough to do so.
Later, we’ll explore how clarity (as opposed to overthinking) actually feels like, so that you can recognise it when it´s there — but before that, we need to learn how to feel safe enough to listen.
From Mind to Body and Back Again
Safety begins in the body.
You don’t need to meditate for hours a day or become “spiritually advanced” to hear your intuition, quiet your thoughts, or feel safe again.
It’s simpler than that: when your body feels safe, your nervous system settles.
When your nervous system settles, the mind finally stops racing.
And in that softness, that sense of inner safety, new thoughts become available.
It’s like saying to your mind, you can rest now; you don’t have to control everything. It´s ok.
We step out of urgency, feel safe enough to pause, and as our mind relaxes, it opens, letting in new ideas, insights, and possibilities.
We open: in the body and in the mind.
That’s the moment we begin to see options that were invisible before, because inside the mental hamster wheel, all we could do was run faster.
It takes courage to do things differently from what we’ve learned and what we’re used to. To pause, to notice your body instead of staying in your mind, that’s a big step. So take a moment to acknowledge and celebrate yourself for being on this journey, for finding your own way.
The Myth of Perfect Preparation
Doubt, fear, and the dreaded “what if” can keep us waiting for the perfect plan. But you don’t need to be 100% ready to begin. A single small, imperfect step can shift everything.
Something that keeps so many of us stuck is the belief that we need to be completely ready or perfectly clear before we can begin anything.
It’s such a natural wish, because of course we want to get things right, but this idea often quietly holds us back.
Maybe you´ve noticed this in yourself, that we think things through and the moment we think we´re ready and we want to take action, like sharing our ideas with the rest of the world … doubt kicks in.
It´s understandable because we are about to cross the invisible border from “potential idea” to “making it real”, stepping into new lands so to speak and that can trigger doubts…
So let´s talk about “perfect preparation”
We often believe we have to be 100% ready before we act. That we need a perfect plan, total clarity, zero doubt.
And yes, direction matters. Planning matters. But we can get so attached to “being ready” that we never actually begin.
We often end up over-planning instead of moving. Instead of doing. The mind clings to what it can do best, thinking, but it's limited as it is right now.
Remember: around 95% of what you think today is what you thought yesterday. Your mind is recycling the familiar.
So of course you can’t mentally “plan for every possibility.” You literally can’t even imagine the versions of you that only exist on the other side of action.
Even the best plan is based on our current reality. What we know right now. It leaves not much room for the unknown, for learning and growing. For the possibilities that only reveal themselves once we begin.
The ones we can literally not come up with mentally because our mind is staying in the “zone of knowing”, familiar thoughts and patterns.
If we try to solve a problem, or a situation, from the same state of mind and body that created it, we’ll only get more of the same. Real change needs a new state, this is feeling more safe in our body. That helps to open our mind and what it also does: it helps us to take small, grounded action.
This is a major part in gaining clarity and moving forward, because even if your mind is more open and has all these amazing ideas, if we just think about it, we´ll stay in the realm of potential that I mentioned earlier.
So we need to find ways to go beyond that and it starts with taking action.
This isn’t about huge, dramatic action.
It’s about small, honest action, something that feels safe enough for your nervous system, but still a tiny bit outside your comfort zone.
That one step moves you from “idea” into “reality.”
And reality gives you feedback, which gives you clarity. Thinking alone can’t do that.
Embodying Clarity: Finding Your Inner Yes
Now, let´s talk about clarity.
Often, we want clarity before we take a step. Before we decide, act, or share something new.
But sometimes, that wish for certainty or clarity keeps us stuck too. We’ve already seen how action can help us find clarity, but there’s another perspective I want to share:
Do we actually know how clarity, our inner YES, feels like? How can we recognise it?
We often think clarity, the inner “yes”, is a thought. Or we think it’s that magical moment when all worries stop and everything finally makes sense.
But honestly… does that moment ever come? Not really.
You already know your mind is super creative and comes up with thoughts, worries, and what not all the time..
So it must be something else, something beyond thinking. And guess what? It´s in your body, again.
Clarity usually isn’t a mental conclusion only, it is also a felt sense. A gentle collaboration between your thoughts and your body.
It’s that quiet knowing that shows up through your body. As a subtle sensation, a calm, grounded awareness.
And this can feel different for everyone, but it’s rarely loud or dramatic.
Most often, it’s simple and steady, like when you decide, “Today I’ll have spaghetti.” No drama. No debate. No analysis. You just know. And you do it.
Exercise: Get to Know Your Inner Clarity
To explore how clarity feels like for you, you can do the following exercise:
Take a moment to get comfortable, either sitting or lying down. Let your body settle into the present moment
Now bring to mind a recent moment when you felt clear, when you simply knew what you wanted or what to do.
Maybe you chose a particular meal, bought something you really liked, or took a hot shower.
When you have that situation, gently let go of the story… and shift your attention to how it felt in your body.
How did you know you were clear? What happened in your body?
Was there a particular sensation, like lightness, groundedness, stillness?
This is how you start building self-trust.
Not by forcing certainty in your mind, but by learning the feeling of “Yes” in your body, and letting that guide your next small step.
If you’d like to explore this more deeply, I’ve created a short guided practice where I walk you through sensing your own inner clarity, your embodied “Yes.”
It´s called: Feel Your Way To Clarity.
You can listen to it on Insight Timer, or reach out if you’d like to receive the recording directly or to work with me 1:1 and explore your own patterns of overthinking and stress in a more personalized way.
In my 1:1 sessions, we use EFT Tapping and other body-based tools to release emotional stress and regulate the nervous system, so that you feel the inner safety and clarity to do the things that matter most to you.
Thank you for being here. ♡