50 Overthinking Quotes To Help You Stop Stressing Out
Let go of any negative thoughts!
It seems like every day that we all are susceptible to negative feelings, stress, and emotions, so using tools to keep you focused — like reading overthinking quotes when you're feeling overwhelmed — can help you make life a little simpler.
Even the smallest situations can lead to an insane amount of overthinking and it might distract you from your goal(s). There is no reason to feel crazy or think there is anything wrong with you! We're all human and the day to day schedules we have set up don't always go as planned.
Believe it or not, but overthinking is a self-destructive habit that takes years to break from, and feeling overwhelmed can make it hard to make important decisions in your life.
The moment you allow that one "What if" slip into your mind, it is ultimately up to you to redirect your thoughts and remind yourself that things will be okay even if the path isn't too clear.
Having the tendency to overthink things can lead you down a road toward an unfulfilled and unhappy life. If you can't see the good that comes out of some scenarios because you're constantly stressed that things won't go right, you will never see the good in anything.
Everyone knows that we are our own worse critics and can be way too hard on ourselves. Maybe it's because society has taught us not to aim too high, or we haven't trained our brains to see through to our true potential.
Whatever the case may be, it's important to remember that we are all capable of achieving great things. All it takes is a little bit of faith and action — and that, my friends, will lead you to the moon.
Listed below are some thoughtful overthinking quotes that teach us how to recognize when we are stressing ourselves out. If you're feeling stuck in a rut or down in the dumps, these quotes about overthinking will enable you to feel less alone and help you understand how to be more confident in your life decisions.
1. Take your time.
“Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in."— Napoleon Bonaparte
2. Do not paralyze yourself with your thoughts.
“Thinking too much leads to paralysis by analysis. It's important to think things through, but many use thinking as a means of avoiding action.”— Robert Herjavek
3. The less you know is not the better.
“The more you overthink the less you will understand.” ― Habeeb Akande
4. Stop thinking and just do it.
“If you keep thinking about what you want to do or what you hope will happen, you don’t do it, and it won’t happen.” — Desiderius Erasmus
5. Be authentic.
“The more you rationalize, the more you move farther away from your authentic self.” ― Shannon L. Alder
6. Focus on the bigger picture.
"Spend eighty percent of your time focusing on the opportunities of tomorrow rather than the problems of yesterday.”— Brian Tracy
7. Don't sweat the small stuff.
“Rule number one is, don't sweat the small stuff. Rule number two is, it's all small stuff.”— Robert Eliot
8. Don't get too deep.
“Don't get too deep, it leads to overthinking, and overthinking leads to problems that don't even exist in the first place.”— Jayson Engay
9. Take the first step.
“You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”— Martin Luther King, Jr.
10. Enjoy today.
“Stop worrying about what tomorrow may bring. Focus on what you can control. Stay positive. Enjoy today. Expect good things to come."— Karen Salmansohn
11. Stop reaching!
“Overthinking, also, best known as creating problems that are never there” ― David Sikhosana
12. Put your thoughts to sleep.
“Put your thoughts to sleep. Do not let them cast a shadow over the moon of your heart. Let go of thinking.”— Rumi
13. Remain humble.
“Be careful not to appear obsessively intellectual. When intelligence fills up, it overflows a parody.” ― Criss Jami
14. Get up and do something.
“If you can’t sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there and worrying. It’s the worry that gets you, not the loss of sleep.”— Dale Carnegie
15. Cherish every moment.
“Overthinking will not empower you over things that are beyond your control. So, let it be if it is meant to be and cherish the moment.”― Mahsati A.
16. Don't continue beating yourself up.
“Sometimes, you overthink things so much that you ruin something before it even begins, then you beat yourself up, replaying everything to your friends and in your mind.”— Kirsten Corley
17. Do not overanalyze.
“Don’t overanalyze what you see. I have a feeling that you’re over-thinking things. Give it some time, and the pieces of this puzzle might come together.” ― Jessica Park
18. We don't have forever!
“Don’t brood. Get on with living and loving. You don’t have forever.”— Leo Buscaglia
19. There is a cure for everything.
“My mother said the cure for thinking too much about yourself was helping somebody who was worse off than you.”— Sylvia Plath
20. Hold your head up.
“If you treat every situation as a life and death matter, you’ll die a lot of times.”— Dean Smith
21. Think yourself into happiness.
“I think and think and think, I've thought myself out of happiness one million times, but never once into it.”— Jonathan Safran Foer
22. Do not fall into a mind trap.
“Overthinking, also, best known as creating problems that are never there”— David Sikhosana
23. Stop and smell the roses.
“Thinking too much just brings it back to me, me, me—but thanking takes my eyes off myself and my mistakes and puts them on others, on things bigger than myself. I can’t stand here very long without being humbled at how small I am and amazed at how big and beautiful our world is.”— Elizabeth Musser
24. Guard your mind.
“Nothing can harm you as much as your own thoughts unguarded.”— Buddha
25. Think of everything as an opportunity to grow.
“Most misunderstandings in the world could be avoided if people would simply take the time to ask, “What else could this mean?”— Shannon L. Alder
26. Don't think.
“Don’t think. It complicates things. Just feel, and if it feels like home, then follow its path.”— R.M. Drake
27. Don't ruin your relationships with a single thought.
“Overthinking ruins friendships and relationships. Overthinking creates problems you never had. Don’t overthink, just overflow with good vibes." — Anonymous
28. Do what your heart desires.
“Stop overthinking, put more energy on what you really want to do.”― Amit Ray
29. Do not bottle up your emotions.
“Don’t keep things bottled up. It’s not good for you.”― Kody Keplinger
30. Get up and move forward.
“Worrying is like sitting in a rocking chair. It gives you something to do but it doesn’t get you anywhere”— Emma Bombeck
31. Trust yourself.
“The more I think about it, the more I realize that overthinking isn’t the real problem. The real problem is that we don’t trust.”― L.J. Vanier
32. Trust the process.
“Stop thinking, and end your problems.”— Lao Tzu
33. You have to go down!
“You can’t be that kid standing at the top of the waterslide, overthinking it. You have to go down the chute”― Tina Fey
34. Be aware of your thoughts.
“The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation, but your thoughts about it. Be aware of the thoughts you are thinking.”— Eckhart Tolle
35. Overthinking is overrated.
“You know, it is a little known fact that thinking is entirely overrated. The world would be a much better place if we all did a lot less of it.”― Laurie Viera Rigler
36. Take it day by day.
“We can easily manage if we will only take, each day, the burden appointed to it. But the load will be too heavy for us if we carry yesterday's burden over again today, and then add the burden of the morrow before we are required to bear it.”— John Newton
37. Detach yourself.
"People become attached to their burdens sometimes more than the burdens are attached to them.”— George Bernard Shaw
38. Think simple.
“Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”— Steve Jobs
39. Your problems may not be as big as they seem.
“When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened.”— Winston Churchill
40. Ease your mind every moment.
“It's a good idea always to do something relaxing prior to making an important decision in your life.”— Paulo Coelho
41. Do not kill the vibes.
“Overthinking ruins moods and kills good vibes.”— SupaNova Slom
42. The worse thing to do is nothing.
“In a moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing to do, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”— Theodore Roosevelt
43. Just do it.
“Remember, the talking about the thing isn't the thing. Doing the thing is the thing.”— Amy Poehler
44. Listen to your heart.
“Don’t overthink things. Sometimes you can convince your head not to listen to your heart. Those are the decisions you regret for the rest of your life.”— Leah Braemel
45. Think.
“We are dying from overthinking. We are slowly killing ourselves by thinking about everything. Think. Think. Think. You can never trust the human mind anyway. It’s a death trap.”— Anthony Hopkins
46. Ask a lot of questions!
“Most misunderstandings in the world could be avoided if people would simply take the time to ask, “What else could this mean?”― Shannon L. Alder
47. Focus on the finish line.
“The sharpest minds often ruin their lives by overthinking the next step, while the dull win the race with eyes closed.”― Bethany Brookbank
48. Connect with yourself.
“Overthinking evaporates when you feel connected with your body, mind, breath, and the soul.”― Amit Ray
49. Trust the small voice.
“Trust the still, small voice that says, “this might work and I'll try it.”— Diane Mariechild
50. Keep in the sunlight.
“Do not anticipate trouble or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.”— Benjamin Franklin
Destiny Duprey is a writer who covers self-care, love and relationships, and astrology.