Hi there, welcome to Radio Headspace, it's Dora.
The other night,
I caught myself wide awake at 2am replaying a conversation I had earlier in the day.
At first, it was just one small thought.
Did I say the wrong thing?
But then, my mind ran wild.
Suddenly, I was imagining all the ways that person might have taken it,
rehearsing apologies I hadn't needed yet, and even making up arguments that hadn't happened.
By the time I became aware of what I was doing,
I had gone down ten different worst case scenarios, and I was exhausted.
The wild part, I still didn't feel any closer to clarity.
This kind of mental spiral, what we often call overthinking, isn't just random.
Psychologists refer to it as rumination or cognitive looping.
It's when our minds try to solve uncertainty by thinking harder.
We rehearse, replay, and overanalyze, not because we want to suffer,
but because it makes us feel like we're staying in control.
The problem is overthinking doesn't always lead to clarity.
It often leads to exhaustion, indecision, and anxiety.
Mindfulness invites us to trade control for presence.
To stop trying to figure it all out and instead, tune into what's actually happening right now.