Who knew that overthinking was beneficial? I read an amazing article this week which explained the science behind overthinking. I have several friends whom I lovingly tease about the overthinking that goes on in their brains. The struggle is real.
Your brain and your mind have different functions. One works diligently to make sense of the world and maintain the status quo, the other likes to experience life and explore ideas.
Think of one as a suitcase capable of extension, the other as the possibilities that you could take with you.
Our brain is an elaborate system that creates structure and framework for our mind. We know that neural connections and pathways form, our brain can take in new things, but once we’ve established certain ways of doing things, expectations that match our surroundings or we get comfortable, our brain does more maintenance than forging of new pathways.
When you’ve been doing things a long while, pathways through your brain are well established. You assign meaning to experiences and conversations that fit with the way you do life, and all is well. You pop them in their space and zip up the lid.
Your brain is physical and measurable. Your mind is not.
Your mind is broader than your physical brain. It is abstract. It takes the information from your body, including your brain, your experience and interaction with your environment and draws them together to make sense of the world.
This is the part that gets inspired on December 31st and declares that as of tomorrow, your world is going to look different. Your mind has the great idea, runs excitedly to your brain-suitcase and throws it inside. If you’re really determined, your mind might even zip the lid closed.
This idea is thrown in there, but it has no place. If your brain is going to accept this new idea, it must prepare a new space. At this stage, the idea has sharp edges and the corner is protruding, messing with the clean lines on the lid.
Your mind has run off now, looking forward to the promise of tomorrow, but your brain is uncomfortable. There’s a sharp bit that could cause a tear in the lid if it’s not dealt with. Your brain unzips itself to sort out this new uncomfortable idea. It’ll try and package it differently, turn it on its side, test to see how fragile it is and see if there is a suitable space for it. When it has the opportunity, any opportunity, your brain will discuss it with your mind.
If you get up tomorrow and action your new idea, your brain might be willing to round off the edges and sit in the discomfort a little longer. Continue to pursue your idea, it’ll nestle down into that suitcase. Your brain will reorder itself, massage the material on the lid to prevent a tear and set about establishing this new thing. It’s still uncomfortable for a while.
If you don’t embed the idea firmly and allow your brain to incorporate it fully, the brain will quietly push the idea to the edge and out. It will happily close its lid and revert to the way it was.
If you get up tomorrow and you don’t do anything with it, your brain will start moving that idea out of the suitcase straight away. It doesn’t fit. The sooner that suitcase can zip up and get comfortable, the better.
Overthinking is what happens when an experience doesn’t fit with the brain’s current conclusions. A new interpretation or a different way of doing things doesn’t fit neatly into the space your brain has created for that experience.
Overthinking is your brain wrestling between making space and tossing your interpretation out.
Your brain looks at it from the way it always has. Then it takes the new information and holds it up against the old. Then it turns it over to see if that is more palatable. Where are the sharp bits? Could it fit in this way? What if you turned it upside down? How fragile is it? Could it break?
If your brain is full, if you have fixed ideas on things, the space for this new idea is limited. For this new thing to fit, your brain might have to unzip an extension.
If it’s going to extend itself, it’s going to make sure that this idea is worth it. It’s going to argue that the idea doesn’t fit; it needs to go. Your mind argues back that this new way of seeing things really is worth it. The brain will try and figure out if this warrants a current idea being removed so this new idea can take its place.
The answer for overthinkers? Allow your brain to process. Look at it from all the angles. And if your mind really does have something of value that you want to carry forward, let it integrate well into your brain.
Realising that your brain is a suitcase might help. If you’re at capacity and your brain is in overdrive, could you help it out by unzipping an extension? Could it be that things are not as you thought they were? Could both ideas be true, sitting in tension with each other?
We talk about someone with an open mind or a narrow mind. Could that be more about the suitcase, the brain, than the mind itself?
There is probably a scale of how much we allow our mind or our brain to dominate our decision making. Someone with a ‘narrow mind’ may have a small suitcase with a strict overseer. They must reject an idea because their brain will not allow them to carry it.
Another person might have a larger capacity and ideas slot in easier because there is more space. Perhaps their suitcase is quick to open or extend because that pathway is well worn.
If you’re hitting your head against a brick wall, could that be that this brain is wired a certain way so strongly that it will not receive the new information you’re trying to introduce? The brick wall is really a closed suitcase.
For you overthinkers out there, I hope learning that your brain and your mind are the ones in dialogue is helpful. One prefers to remain the same, the other is presenting new information.
If you had a conversation that threw you, and your brain picks that thing apart for hours; what might it look like to create capacity in your brain to accept this new perspective? Are there competing ideas fighting removal?
Your mind thinks this new information is worth fighting for. Perhaps valuing your mind’s differing idea may make it easier to create space.
If the idea is too out there, could the words ‘what if’ allow your brain some space to ponder for a while?
Overthinking is your brain persevering with an idea. Let it wrestle. Let it land. Who knows what might grow from it?
