How To Stop Overthinking: Why Telling Your Mind To Stop Never Works, And What Does
How to stop overthinking: the short answer
If you are searching for how to stop overthinking, you already know the trap. Telling your mind to stop worrying is like telling yourself not to think of a pink elephant. The worry gets louder, especially at night.
What works is giving the mind something better to do, and calming the body that keeps feeding it alarm signals. That is exactly what a yoga class does. Here is the article in short form:
- Minds wander about 47% of the day, and a wandering mind is unhappy.
- You cannot argue worry away; you can give the mind one job.
- Worry is stored in the body: muscles, breath and nerves.
- Iyengar yoga matched a mindfulness course in a Berlin trial.
- Mindfulness matched a common anti-anxiety medicine in a 2023 trial.
- Bring the head down, supported, and the mind quietens.
A quick word on Iyengar yoga. Iyengar yoga is the style developed by Mr BKS Iyengar. In the 20th century he did more than anyone to set down traditional Indian yoga, through his books and his teaching, and he pioneered the use of props. It is the style we teach at Flametree, in Darwin and live online.
A pose done well takes all your attention. There is no room left for worry.
Why do I overthink everything?
Partly because that is what minds do. In 2010, two Harvard psychologists, Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert, used a phone app to ask 2,250 people, at random moments, what they were doing and what they were thinking about. People’s minds were wandering 46.9% of the time.
And a wandering mind was an unhappy mind. People were less happy when their minds wandered, whatever they were doing. Most of us know where a stressed mind goes. Back to the argument at work. Forward to the bill that is due. Round and round the same worry.
Worry also runs in families. My mother worried too much. In later life I watched her world shrink as anxiety took hold. She lived near Geelong, and the freeway to Melbourne became out of the question. She and her partner took the longer back roads instead, because the faster route felt like too much. She also passed a lot of it on to me.
Why doesn’t telling myself to stop worrying work?
Because the alarm is coming from the body as well as the head. Long stress keeps the nervous system’s accelerator down. The heart stays a little faster, the shoulders a little tighter, the breath a little higher in the chest. The brain reads those signals and keeps looking for the danger.
Dan Harris, the American newsreader, froze live on air in 2004 in front of about five million people. He read shelves of self-help books, and many described his problem well: a voice in the head that never stops. But when he asked one famous author how to quieten it, the answer was to take one conscious breath. He had a good diagnosis, and still no method. A method is what a class gives you.
Worry lives in the body as well as the head: in the muscles, the breath and the nervous system. Yoga works on all three.
How does yoga stop a racing mind?
It gives the mind one job. A pose done well takes all your attention: where the weight falls in the feet, whether the knees are straight, how the breath is moving. There is no room left for worry. “Yoga makes us live in the present,” Mr Iyengar said.
Then the body is calmed so it stops sending alarm signals. A class starts standing, in Mountain Pose. Standing poses use up nervous energy. Then forward bends with the head supported quieten a busy head, in the Iyengar tradition and in our experience. Last comes rest, which is a skill you can learn.
The trials point the same way. In the Berlin RELAX trial of 2022, 102 stressed adults did 12 weeks of Iyengar yoga, a broader yoga programme, or mindfulness training. All three gave a large drop in stress that was still there three months later, and Iyengar yoga did as well as the mindfulness course.
Wide-Legged Forward Bend with blocks. The legs work hard, then the head comes down to rest, and a busy mind quietens.
Get the free ebook Cutting Stress With Yoga. New to Flametree, or away for 3 months or more? You get 2 free classes + 2 ebooks, only available via this offer. Already coming to class? You can still get the book.
Is yoga as good as medicine for worry?
The skill of attention that a class trains has been tested head to head. In a 2023 trial in JAMA Psychiatry, 276 adults with an anxiety disorder did an eight-week mindfulness course or took a common anti-anxiety medicine. The mindfulness course worked as well as the medicine, with far fewer side effects: about 15% of the mindfulness group had a side effect, against about 79% on the medicine.
That was mindfulness, not yoga. But it is the same skill an Iyengar class trains through the pose and the breath. Feel free to check with your professional advisers if you wish, but also give yoga a try.
Any good class helps an overthinking mind. Pranayama, restorative and gentle classes add something extra.
How do I stop overthinking at night?
Keep the evening quiet, and use the out-breath. Each breath out slows the heart a little, so a longer out-breath presses the body’s brake for longer. Strong poses belong earlier in the day; the evening is for supported poses and slow breathing.
Even after so many years, I am surprised by how much it changes from day to day. If I miss my practice, I feel more anxious almost straight away. Then I get back on my mat in some of the easy, calming poses, and the anxiety goes back in its box. I do the same when I can’t sleep.
Our students say it in their own words. G, who started in the studio and moved to our online classes when she left Darwin, wrote that yoga gave her “a quieter mind to help me deal with life in general.”
Forward bends quieten a racing mind. Evenings are for the quiet poses; the lively work belongs earlier in the day.
Where can I get help with overthinking in Darwin?
For overthinking in Darwin, come to class at Flametree’s Woolner or Coolalinga studio, or join live online from anywhere in Australia. You do not have to be calm to start; none of us were. You can keep your eyes open, stay near the wall and tell your teacher anything. Our pranayama (breath meditation), gentle and restorative classes are especially good for a busy mind.
See also Yoga For Anxiety, How To Lower Cortisol and Yoga For Stress Management.
Cutting Stress With Yoga, our free ebook on stress, worry and sleep.
Your free copy of Cutting Stress With Yoga is waiting. New to Flametree, or away for 3 months or more? You get 2 free classes + 2 ebooks, only available via this offer. Already coming to class? You can still get the book.
Frequently asked questions
Why can’t I stop overthinking?
Because the alarm comes from the body as well as the head. Long stress keeps the heart faster, the muscles tighter and the breath higher, and the brain reads those signals as danger. Calming the body and giving the mind one job works better than arguing with the worry.
Is overthinking a sign of anxiety?
It can be part of it. Everyone’s mind wanders, about 47% of the day in a Harvard study, but worry that runs round and round is a sign the body’s alarm is stuck on. Yoga is one of the best tested ways to switch it off.
How do I stop my mind racing at night?
Keep the evening quiet. Strong poses belong earlier in the day; evenings are for supported poses and a slow, long out-breath, which presses the body’s brake. Forward bends with the head supported quieten a busy head in the Iyengar tradition.
Does mindfulness help overthinking?
Yes. In a 2023 trial of 276 adults with an anxiety disorder, an eight-week mindfulness course worked as well as a common anti-anxiety medicine, with far fewer side effects. An Iyengar class trains the same skill of attention through the pose and the breath.
Can yoga help a worrier who cannot sit still to meditate?
Often better than sitting does. A yoga pose gives restless attention something precise to do, and standing poses use up nervous energy before the quiet work. In a 2022 Berlin trial, Iyengar yoga lowered stress as much as a mindfulness course.
How long does it take yoga to calm a busy mind?
Many people feel calmer after one class. Lasting change comes with regular practice: the stress trials ran for two to three months, and in one Berlin trial the drop in stress was still there three months after classes ended.
Does worry run in families?
It often seems to. Chris Lalor watched her mother’s world shrink with anxiety and found she had inherited some of it. Regular yoga is how she keeps it in check: when she misses practice she feels it, and the calming poses put it back in its box.
Where can I get help with overthinking in Darwin?
Flametree Yoga Studio teaches Iyengar yoga at Woolner and Coolalinga in Darwin and live online. You do not have to be calm to start. Our pranayama, gentle and restorative classes are especially good for a busy, worried mind.
Where to next
- New to yoga, or coming back? Start with our half price 10 class pass with 2 classes free, in Darwin or live online.
- For a workplace, team or group: book private yoga classes for groups, online, at a Flametree studio or at your venue.
- Want to see class times first? Look at the beginner timetable.
Flametree Yoga Studio, Darwin and live online. This article is general information, not medical advice. Feel free to check with your professional advisers if you wish, but also give yoga a try.
Sources: Killingsworth MA and Gilbert DT, A wandering mind is an unhappy mind, Science, 2010; Hoge EA and colleagues, Mindfulness-based stress reduction vs escitalopram for adults with anxiety disorders (276 adults), JAMA Psychiatry, 2023; the RELAX trial of Iyengar yoga, broader yoga and mindfulness (102 stressed adults), Berlin, 2022; Michalsen A and colleagues, Iyengar yoga for 72 distressed women, 2012; Dan Harris, 10% Happier, 2014. Further reading: Killingsworth and Gilbert, Science, 2010. Full references are in the Cutting Stress With Yoga ebook.
