how to stop overthinking: 6 tactics, from the first loop to the last 3am replay

most overthinking is not about anything happening right now. on the transcript, Sadhguru asks Ryan about something that happened ten years ago: "So are you suffering life, or are you suffering your memories?" then the future: "What may happen day after tomorrow, you already suffer." his summary: "So most of the time, human beings are suffering their memory and imagination."

the tactic: sort the thought before you engage with it. a problem in front of you needs action. a memory or an imagined disaster only needs you to notice what it is. his locked tactic 07 is about the worst time for this, when you close your eyes: "people close their eyelids and replay their old videos." for him it is the opposite: "When I close my eyes, world is over for me." the free play on the Podex page adds that a busy mind is not the problem in itself.

try this week: every time you catch a loop, label it out loud or on paper: now, memory, or imagination. only now gets a next step. count your labels each evening and see which pile is biggest.

you cannot out-think a loop. Greenberg's warning, on the transcript, is about trying "to combat thinking with thinking", which he says can backfire for some people. the other route is to step outside the thought: notice it, and remind yourself "A thought is not always true." then let it drift, or make fun of it. his silliest example: "you can literally sing the happy birthday song to your thought." the point is distance: "yeah, I have the thought that I suck. But it doesn't mean I suck."

the tactic: separate yourself from the thought, then give worry a time slot. Greenberg says anxious people tend to believe worry is urgent. so pick a time, his example is "let's say 5 p.m.", and not right before bed. write each new worry down once during the day, then wait. "So you're essentially batch processing." at 5pm you worry on purpose.

try this week: start each worry with the phrase I am having the thought that, out loud or on paper. set a daily 15-minute worry slot at 5pm. any worry that shows up earlier goes on a list, one line each, for later.

most people try to shut the inner critic up. Hudson thinks that is the slow way. on the transcript: "If you try to change the self talk, it's very inefficient. If you change the way you react to the self talk, it's far, far more efficient." he says most of us listen to it like someone in the audience nodding along to every word. so try a different reaction. answer it with kindness: "Oh, I see how scared you are." or call its bluff: "Prove it."

the tactic: run your reaction as an experiment. pick one way of answering the voice and use it every time it shows up that day. then switch: "two days later, you do a new experiment." his second play is on paper: "write out here the 20 things that negative voice in my head says the most and look for seven ways they're not true. And if you can't find them, ask your friends." the free play on the page, the golden algorithm, explains why: the feeling you avoid is the one you keep inviting.

try this week: write the 20 lines your inner critic says most. pick the top three and find seven reasons each is not true. for the next two days, answer the voice with one fixed reply.

a lot of overthinking is a way to avoid one feeling. Hudson's fix is to stop avoiding it. on the transcript: "if you visualize this and you actually feel the destruction that you're trying to avoid, then you've already lived it so you don't have to be scared of it anymore." he walks founders through the death of their company, layoffs and all: "You visualize the end of the company so that you can stop acting from fear."

the tactic: feel it once, properly. asked how often to do it, he says "It's more until the fear is gone." how you do it matters more than reps: sit down, close your eyes and slow down on the parts you do not want to see. "The big trick is to feel the things you don't want to feel." his reasoning: "we're scared of an emotional experience, not an actual experience."

try this week: pick the one what-if you replay most. set a 10-minute timer, close your eyes and walk through it ending badly, slowly, feeling each part. afterwards, write one line on what you would actually do if it happened.

some overthinking is a decision you will not make. Willink's view, on the transcript, is that waiting only looks safe, because "most human instinct is to hesitate". his rule of thumb is that seven times out of ten, action beats doing nothing: "70% of the time you better take that action". he admits there are times to hold back. but action is the default. his picture of it: "if you're in the woods and you don't know where to go start walking". worst case, you turn around. "standing there not doing anything is just waiting to starve to death".

the tactic: shrink the decision until you can make it today. he will "take the smallest step possible", because "I'm never going to know everything". his example is a job you hate. he does not quit tomorrow. he updates his resume, checks LinkedIn, builds a few relationships, and a better offer shows up. many small steps, no big leap.

try this week: pick the decision you have looped on longest. write the smallest step that moves it forward and that you could undo. do it within 24 hours, then write the next one.

you can also leave the loop through the body. Shi Heng Yi, a Shaolin master, says on the transcript that people suffer because "they haven't used the body as it is intended to be used." move, and the excess energy gets used up, so "less energy is now aiming towards the head and creating all type of problems that don't exist in your life that you are making up."

the tactic: move first, breathe second. for the moment when your heart races and, in Huberman's words on the transcript, "you can't organize your thoughts in the way you want", he uses the physiological sigh: "a double inhale, long exhale". two breaths in, the second one short, then a long breath out until your lungs are empty. "You do it once."

try this week: when a loop starts, do one physiological sigh first. then move for 10 minutes: a walk, stairs, push-ups. note whether the loop is still there afterwards.