Everything else in our life can be going well, but if there is ever an area of life that we tend to overthink, it’s love. As Shakespeare joked, “The course of true love never did run smooth,” and many of us cannot help but overthink the other party’s thoughts and responses. These days, who among us *isn’t* a relationship-overthinker? This story of one thirty-something woman’s attempt to turn her life into a Love Laboratory and finally ‘figure out’ where she fits in the ever more complex landscape of sexual spectrums and definition rainbows is bold and candid, funny and heart-wrenching, and coaxes readers into looking at how we define (and overthink) intimacy and relationship.

While these books on overthinking can help you manage your symptoms and develop healthier skills for coping with stress and anxiety, they are not the solution. If you are struggling with your mental health, professional help is the best way to go.Dr. Susan Nolen-Hoeksema was born on May 22, 1959, in Springfield, Ill., to John and Catherine Nolen. Her father ran a construction business, where her mother was the office manager; Susan was the eldest of three children. Some parts of the book are formatted in the manner of a hypothetical conversation between the author and the reader. There are also many charts, diagrams, and illustrations throughout.

When the world is burning, it would be disingenuous to imply that parking all of your worries and watching Netflix is necessarily a responsible choice. If you have the time and means, for example, volunteering for a cause that you're thinking about a lot – say, your local foodbank or a climate change group – can add purpose to your days. The distinction here, Smith says, is between worry and concern. My brain literally never stops. In fact I routinely have two lines of thought at any given time. Not to mention any kind of visual thoughts I might be having. It can be exhausting. So when something bad is happening - or all the bad things are happening all at once like lately!! - I am definitely one to OVERTHINK. And probably to over think about the 2-3 absolute WORST possible outcomes all at once! (And overthink about overthinking). Oh joy! Aren’t you happy you aren’t in my head? I believe the exercises given in this book will be much more useful if you have a physical copy of the book close at hand, though. The audiobook is clearly and professionally narrated, but at times I would have liked to return to some previously discussed matters to clarify a point or revisit an example, and you can't really do that with audio. Self-help books tend to suffer from this format, I think, and this one was no exception. Although I usually appreciate the addition of supplementary material to just about any book, I felt that there were a bit too many kitschy illustrations included here for my tastes...Self-help books tend to be a bit of hit-and-miss with me, with greater emphasis on miss, but this one was actually helpful. That might be because I've always been a worrier and prone to anxiety, so the subject matter hits rather uncomfortably close to home. The author approaches worrisome overthinking from the perspective of cognitive behavioural therapy, patiently explaining what overthinking really is, where it stems from, what it does to you, how utterly absurd it is at the end of the day, and what you can do to unlearn this ultimately useless behaviour. Behind every ‘overthinking episode’ is a debilitating belief. For example, if your mind is racing before a presentation, you must believe you are unprepared and will bomb. Based on that, G. Smith has classified overthinking into (1) positive and (2) negative aka worrisome. Clarify the belief by asking yourself, “What must I believe about myself, others, or the future to justify my anxiety?” If you analyze past events and worry about upcoming events to the point where you cannot focus on a simple task – you are overthinking.

Along the way she published scores of studies and a popular textbook. In 2003 she became the editor of the Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, an influential journal.In the book, Smith provides a series of 'flashcards,' which you can use to challenge unhelpful thoughts. These include: 'How is this thinking helping me?,' 'Where is this thinking taking me?' and 'Feelings are not facts - beliefs are not facts.' Confront your worries with these to try and remove some of their power. 4. Telling yourself 'I shouldn't worry' does not work

Observe what happens when I say “now, just focus on what you are reading and whatever you do, don’t think about camels, red sand and pyramids and camels and so on." ' Chwyl C, et al. (2020). Beliefs about self-compassion: Implications for coping and self-improvement. Her studies, first in children and later in adults, exposed one of the most deceptively upsetting of these patterns: rumination, the natural instinct to dwell on the sources of problems rather than their possible solutions. Women were more prone to ruminate than men, the studies found, and in a landmark 1987 paper she argued that this difference accounted for the two-to-one ratio of depressed women to depressed men. Pieter R, Nababan D, Ariawan S, Listio S, Ruben S. Improving interpersonal skills to overcome the negative effects of overthinking in the disruption era. BIRCI-J. 2022;5(2):10632-10642. doi:10.33258/birci.v5i2.4876 Over thinking is often an exercise in the excessive use of cognitive bias that is not helpful. This should not be confused with critical thinking, which is an examination of different sources of information and weighing their respective merits.Seemingly innocuous events spiral into a cacophony of doubts and demons. Psychologist and anxiety expert, David Carbonell, has seen it all. The book is an interesting read, and it has a fun way of showing how you can overcome overthinking about the future by embracing the benefits of chaos and living in the moment.