5 Ways Muslims can Get Rid of Overthinking
In a time when
events accelerate, dreams and ideas crowd in, and balances shift in a fraction
of a second, overthinking has become a burden that exhausts minds, pains
hearts, and ravages bodies—until it turns into a closed circle in which the
soul spins day and night, finding neither an exit nor guidance to a way. Yet
breaking free from this constraint is not impossible; there are scientific
steps that can restore clarity to the mind, tranquility to the heart, and
health to the body.
1. Having good expectations and believing in divine decree (Qadar):
Overthinking either stems from fear of the future or regret over the past. In
both cases, we must believe that all matters proceed by the decree of Allah,
exalted is He, and that there is no escape from that reality, and that Allah
decrees for us what is best. For this reason, belief in the divine decree is
one of the pillars of faith. When Jibril asked the Prophet (peace
be upon him) about faith, he said: “It means that you should believe
in God, His angels, His books, His apostles, and the last day, and that you
should believe in the decreeing both of good and evil.”
And he (peace
be upon him) said in another hadith: “Were you to spend in support of
God’s cause an amount of gold equivalent to Uhud, God would not accept it from
you till you believed in the divine decree and knew that what has come to you
could not miss you and that what has missed you could not come to you. Were you
to die believing anything else you would enter hell.”
Belief in the divine decree calms the heart and clears the mind. How beautiful
it is for a person to occupy himself with the sweetness of this verse: “Say, ‘Nothing will ever befall us except what Allah has
destined for us.’” (At-Tawbah 9:51)
2. Observe your
thoughts without believing all of them:
The first step to overcoming overthinking is awareness. For this to be
achieved, each person must recognize when overthinking begins and what triggers
it, then strive to notice it and redirect it. When we realize that a thought is
not true or not an actual reality—such as believing that everyone is watching
us, or that we are destined to fail at the end of every path—the distance
between us and that thought begins to grow, and we can get rid of it before it
turns into ongoing suffering.
3. Write to
unload your thoughts, not to analyze them:
Writing is one of the most effective means of emptying the mind of excessive
thoughts. When a person writes what is going on in their mind, thoughts move
from chaos and confusion into order and structure. Numerous psychological
theories and studies have proven that when a person writes down everything that
occupies and worries them on paper, then returns to it an hour later, they will
discover that many of these thoughts do not deserve all that distress.
4. Learn the
art of mental stopping:
When your mind enters a whirlpool of thinking, you must say to yourself
clearly: “Stop.” To be able to make this decision, you need to change your
physical state—stand up, move, breathe deeply, wash your face, or walk for a
few minutes. These actions send a signal to the mind that this is not the right
time to drown in those thoughts.
5. Occupy your
mind with what benefits:
A person cannot stop their mind from thinking, because it is simply performing
its innate function that Allah, exalted is He, has assigned to it. What can
truly be done is to redirect it and keep it occupied with positive activities
instead of letting it sink into negative thoughts—through reading and learning,
exercising, developing skills, and engaging in acts of worship and obedience,
and the like.
From this, it
becomes clear that overthinking does not change the future; rather, it steals
energy and vitality and causes the present to slip through our hands. To
overcome this type of thinking, we must have good expectations of Allah,
believe in the divine decree—its good and its bad—observe and record our
thoughts, learn the art of mental stopping, and occupy our minds with what is
beneficial.
Read Also:
-
8 Ways to Build Certainty in Muslims' Hearts
-
3 Prophetic Gems for Self-Development and Success
-
Intellect and Critical Thinking in the Quran
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Resources:
1- Islamweb.
2- The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI).
3- The key principles of cognitive behavioural therapy
