Free to Feel and Deal

I want to give a special shout-out to all my fellow overthinkers.

Hello again, my friends, hello.

You know how, even though we know it's not serving us or helping the situation, we overthink and ruminate?  

And I mean we OVERthink—for long periods, like hours and days or weeks and months.

We know all the thinking and worrying isn't helping us, but...(insert rationalizations and excuses).

Perhaps our "but" is not wanting to feel or deal.

WHAT?

What if overthinking is our way of disassociating?

This notion hit me hard yesterday.

I was wasting time scrolling through reels on social media when I came across a funny video that explained the connection between overthinking and disassociation.

I never thought of overthinking as disassociating; to me, it feels more like over-associating.

When I am stressed or worried, the problem is all I seem to think about.

But, the more I think about it (see what I did there?), I see that overthinking takes me into my head and away from my body and soul.

I'm not in the present. I'm not here and now. I'm stuck in the past or plunged into the future. I am regretting, worrying, worse-case-scenarioing, what-if-ing.

Overthinking transports us into another dimension, which isn't helping us in the here and now.

I can think of SO many times when I was in an anxious and stressed state of mind and, while physically present, felt like I was mentally catapulted into another space and time.

Overthinking imprisons us in our minds and causes underfeeling and disconnection.

I cannot change what happened or control what might happen. I can only manage what is happening now.

So, let's teleport ourselves back to the here and now.

Whatever we are facing right now, God is giving us the strength and the capacity to feel and deal with it.

We don't have to run into our minds to strategize, we don't have to numb, we don't have to hide.

How do you feel?  

Read that again

HOW do you feel?

Do you feel scared in your chest?

Do you feel unsafe in your stomach?

Do you feel hurt in your heart?

Do you feel stressed in your head?

Do you feel helpless in your legs?

It's fascinating HOW we feel our feelings.

God created our bodies to communicate with us.

God also gave us the tools to deal with situations that arise (in the moment they arise).  

We are equipped to do this!

We are free to stay in the here and now.

Let’s fight the urge to crawl back into the prison of overthinking and time-traveling rumination.

God is here with us; we can feel and deal with His help.

Right now, I am feeling hungry, so I am going to go deal with that.

And that feels pretty darn good to me.

Matthew 6:34

Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.

1 Peter 5:7

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

Psalm 55:22

Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let

the righteous be shaken.