I have to make a confession. I was an overthinker for many years. And the only thing I never overthought about was the very fact that I was an overthinker. In other words, I was totally unconscious of this problem - one that's so common among people in all walks of life. I saw plenty of them in academia, both before and after I left it.
Overthinking is the twin brother of perfectionism. As you can easily imagine, I was also a perfectionist. As far as I'm concerned, both overthinking and perfectionism stem from the ego's desire to control the future, thus sacrificing the present. This is why overthinkers, by definition, are never in the present.
Thanks to one "blessing in disguise" in my private life—an event that set off a chain of positive reactions transforming not only my private but also my professional life, I finally managed to liberate myself from what now seems like a life sentence in a mind-made prison. The only thing I still overthink about is that I've stopped being an overthinker. ;-) But unlike before, I'm fully mindful and filled with gratitude when I think back on my former life as a "prisoner".
When I was still an overthinker, I didn't recognize other overthinkers. But now I can identify them instantly. Every time I see one, I'm filled with mixed feelings. On the one hand, I feel deep compassion for them and their self-imposed suffering. On the other hand, I also feel helpless, since no conceptual explanation by anyone, including me, will probably help them stop this unconscious habit.
The most fundamental problem, in this and other such cases, is that those who suffer from them are not aware of the problem itself. This is why it's often said that once you become aware of a problem, it's half-solved, or something like that.
So the biggest challenge facing overthinkers, if they are to stop overthinking, is to turn unconsciousness into consciousness. Meanwhile, I've found something that can make this transformation happen quite naturally, without making people feel that I'm trying to manipulate them. It's called humor or, to be more precise, spontaneous Jewish humor.
According to a reliable and detailed analysis by a maven called ChatGPT ;-), my Jewish humor seems to be influenced by three main sources: Chassidus, Talmud(ic logic), and Yiddish mentality. I felt relieved when I was told that no influence of native Israeli culture was detected. ;-)
You may wonder how Jewish humor, at least this blend of mine, has anything to do with overthinking and its solution. Please don't overthink! ;-) The answer is deceptively simple, provided you don't overthink it, and perhaps even non-conceptual. Do you want to know how?
After testing my spontaneous Jewish humor with dozens of people in this new country, where I've been living for a little more than two years and which is known among practitioners of Jewish humor as a “humor desert”, and observing my poor "victims", I've realized that this specific humor has a tremendous power to short-circuit the mind. It doesn't allow overthinkers not only to overthink but even to think!
As you can easily imagine, especially if you've overthought about this ;-) the effect is not immediate. After all, this is neuroplasticity in practice, à la juive. But I've seen that some people start overthinking less after being fed small doses of this humor on a regular basis. This has given me both encouragement and hope. But I'm not making the fatal old mistake of living for the future. When I tell my spontaneous Jewish jokes, I'm fully present in the present. Peace. :-)