Subtract human voices and what do you hear! 

Lately, there's been a lot of news about construction fails - expressway cracks, bridges collapsing, road potholes, statues falling crushing, etc. The amount of stimuli - social media, or news that feed into my overthinking brain is insane.

Continuing on same thought- Last week, I was driving to a birthday party and got stuck under this under-construction metro station signal. Rather than enjoying music on the jam-packed roads and endless red signals, I looked up and started worrying, "What if this metro station falls on my car and crushes me? Should I be wearing a helmet next time in the car?" 🙉

And lots more. Yup, sounds crazy and is unknowingly surprisingly tiring.

In the quiet spaces where human voices fade, what do you hear? For an overthinker, like me the silence isn’t really silent—it’s filled with a thousand inner conversations. The hum of your mind doesn’t stop. It's the echo of endless questions, worries, and scenarios playing on repeat.

This ‘overanalyzing situations’ to predict or prevent bad outcomes, hoping that excessive thinking will lead to control the future - is something I have been doing for a long time. Add to this -  being a mom now, you wouldn’t believe how much mental gymnastics I have done ! Weirdly enough, I have still got a ton of black hair on my head, like I am some kind of super chill, stress-free person.

Overthinking (not the creative analytical one,but in a negative way) becomes a habit formed over time. The brain becomes accustomed to ruminating on thoughts, creating a loop of worry that feels hard to break. In this use-case, imagine from the surroundings, if you subtract human voices and what do you hear - only your internal created chaos, loud and clear. 

Thankfully I realize it now!

When I was some 12ish years old(not a kid really), my mother excitedly called me out to look in the sky, “Oh Jaee, look it’s an airplane there!“ It wasn’t a routine to see a plane or travel by air then. So the loads of excitement. “What if the airplane falls?”, I replied with a concerned expression. My optimistic mother remains surprised to this day by the nature of her child's thoughts😆. Today, after 30 years I think about what I said then and then overthink as to why I said so! It has always been difficult to accept uncertainty and ambiguity for me. Multiple times I have caught myself spiraling into negative or repetitive thoughts. 

So finally, working on fixing it on a serious note!

Realised over the months that identifying the triggers that lead to (unnecessarily) overanalyzing situations is very important here. Focusing on solutions is important, not on constant problems. 

Asking yourself, “What can I do right now to address this?” helps. Try it , if you relate here.