Writing: A way of Life ◆◇

Journal

Hey there! Passer-by…

Are you an over thinker who struggles to lead a life you desire? Then, your way of life might be: Writing.

◆ What is Writing?

When you go on your search engine to search, the first answer that might pop-up would be: Writing is the act of creating persistent representation of Human Language. (And it goes on like that.- From Wikipedia)

Honestly, I had a hard time understanding that and connecting it to the definition I had in mind.

However, when I opened the dictionary at home to check the meaning of Writing, the meaning it provided was: Writing is the act of putting pen to the paper… or fingers to the keyboard… or even your thumbs to phonepad.

Now this is a definition we all could understand and this is the basic idea of writing we all commonly got in our minds.

But…

Is writing really that simple? Especially when it becomes your way of life…?

No, it’s not. As a way of life, the horizon of the act of writing is vast like the endless blue sky.

So, let’s ask again. What is WRITING?…

But, before we answer the question… Let’s take a moment to reflect on our inner-self and split up your inner-self into different individuals. For example, we might have a side in our mind allocated for self-improvement and at the same time, we would also have a side for entertainment. So, let’s split them up.

Now, let each one of them think of an answer.

For example… This is how my inner individuals answered,

• My self-improvement self answered:

Writing is, allocating a certain time period in our day, or when we’re feeling down and stuck, or use our free time to write about our personal thoughts, feelings, insights and more. This is what we typically address as; Journaling.

• My fun & entertainment self said:

Writing is, writing about our happiest or saddest or about any moment of our life in Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or any kind of social media. Typically known as posting on Social Media.

• My creative self was like:

Writing is, imagining a vivid fictional story in our mind and give life to it by writing it down on a paper or on my personal computer. Which is basically, Novel or Fiction writing.

• And, My blogger self answered:

Writing is, selecting a topic and taking our time to do some research on it before bringing all the facts and datas we collected in to a blog and writing it down manually or on Medium. Which is Blogging.

◆ Are you an Overthinker?

Now, about overthinkers, what is the criteria to conclude whether you’re an overthinker or not.

I’d say an easy answer, if you’re here after reading the first line that basically said, ‘For Overthinkers’, then you’re most likely to be an overthinker. Because, when we’re overthinking, we’re most probably aware of it. We know that we’re overthinking but, we just can’t seem to control ourselves.

But, sometimes, people misunderstand the meaning of ‘Overthinking’.

Here’s a question,

Is thinking too much called over-thinking?

Now that leads to another typical question.

How much is too much?

The term ‘Too much’ is used when something that has a particular limit to it got it’s limits breached. But, does thinking have any limits to it? Honestly, we think all day, every day without leaving a single second of rest to our brain. And even while we’re sleeping, our thoughts involuntarily just goes on. So, on the matter of time limit, there’s no limit to thinking.

So, there’s no such term as ‘too much thinking’. Which concludes,

No, too much thinking is not what overthinking is.

Then, what is overthinking?

In the simplest terms, Overthinking is dwell on or worry about the same thing repeatedly. It can be worrying about an upcoming exam, or thinking whether your start-up would succeed or not, or worrying about whether you’ll get any views on your blogging. Now, worrying about something si not overthinking. But, worrying about them repeatedly for a long period of time which eats up your time, disrupts your daily schedule and disrupt your mental balance. That is overthinking.

There are three types of overthinking.

• Rumination.
• Future-tripping.
• Overanalyzing.

If you want to know more about overthinking and how to overcome it, I’ll write another blog on it within the next week. You can look at it. Now, let’s jump back into the topic we have at hand.

◆ Why Writing is the way of life for overthinkers?

Like mentioned above, I use writing in four different ways in my life. Which are,

1. Journaling.
2. Posting.
3. Fiction writing.
4. Blogging.

Now, the first step is: Journaling.

What is journaling? It is basically, allocating a time that works the best for you, prferably at mornings or evenings, and write down on your diary or digital journaling app about anything that comes to your mind.

Sure, you might think that you don’t have enough time to do so. You’re too busy to even breath. But, is it really so? In a day of 24 hours, minus the time you sleep, are you really too busy to just sit down for a 5 or even less 3 minutes to do journaling? No, you’re not. If you think so, take your time and reflect on your day to day life for a minute.

What does Journaling do? What journaling do to me is, it helps me carry a burden which is too heavy for me carry alone. Whenever I find myself overthinking, I take my diary and write whatever is on my mind, whatever I was overthinking about and once I was finished, I make a mental note that I’ve already given my problem to my diary for him/her to figure it out so, I’m not gonna think about it anymore.

Of course, It sounds easy on paper. But, try it out yourself. It’s easy to act on it as well.

Now, the second type of writing is posting. Posting on Instagram, Facebook or any other social medias. Actually, how this works to minimalize our overthinking is similar to Journaling. What’s the difference is, you can’t write every single thing on your mind on your Journal. Or you might need to spend your whole day writing it. Journaling is for extreme overthinking.

Posting is about venting. Whenever you feel conflicted throughout your day, nowadays we always have our phone with us and we all have at least one social media account. So, whatever you’re feeling, just vent on it. If you don’t want others to see it, certain social medias have an option called ‘For Myself’.

But, a kind remember, don’t immerse yourself in it. Once you’ve posted it, just close down the app and get back to your work. You don’t need to care about how many likes you get, how people react to it or comment on it. Just post it and leave it. And if you find it unable to control yourself, then don’t post on social medias and just use the notes app on your phone.

Third way of writing I use is, Creative/ fiction writing. I use this to satisfy my creative writing self who just loves to write fictional novels. And, there’s no harm in it and instead, I even get paid for it, although not much, it’s time spent well while I hone my creativity.

If you think that you’re not creative enough, and wishes that you’re more creative, just try it out. You can start from short stories and gradually improve yourself. No one is born a master. And honestly, this helps me to control myself from overthinking about stuff that doesn’t really concern me. I have this weird habit of overthinking about other’s business. So, when I’m writing a novel, I use that time on worrying about my characters' lives. And I can develop my characters according to my preferences so, I choose to write as much positive characters as I could.

So, I love creative writing.

And the last type of writing I use in my life is, Blogging. Which basically what this article is. Actually, what blogging do to me is not stop myself from overthinking rather, it helps to grow myself. When I’m blogging, I find how capable I actually am. I feel happy and proud on the fact that I’m more than what I thought of myself. And, I was able to detect my shortcomings through blogging and improve myself more and more.

So, here I am.

So, try making WRITING as the way of your life if you’re feeling lost and stuck due to overthinking. It worked for me. So, why won’t it to you?

You might find yourself in new heights in a few years time.

Remember, there’s no such thing as an outright U-Turn when it comes to life.

Consistency is the sterring wheel…

To turn your life around for better.

◆◇ Have a Lovely Day ◇◆