I am a notorious overthinker, always have been. I do believe there are good things that come from an overthinking brain, but it does not always feel that way. There are certain days where I get a crazy thought and I laugh it off, but on other days I ruminate in it and send myself into a spiral of insane thoughts. I am lucky enough to be surrounded by rational yet understanding people who when I speak these thoughts out loud remind me that I am being insane (in the nicest way possible), but I am still constantly working on trying to prevent the spiral from happening in the first place.
Weekly Wednesday Wisdom
One of the most helpful things I have learnt (Learnt? You know when you say a word over and over and it doesn’t seem real anymore… having that) is that the thought that leads to overthinking (and all the thoughts that follow) is typically something that is completely out of my control in the first place.
Stressing about that thing is not doing anything for me or for the outcome that I desire. I can’t control it. The future is unknown. Quite literally anything can happen between now and then. I do not have control of the outcome, but I do have control of the effort I put in, my learning and development, and my patience and attitude in the process. I can’t control what people think of me, but I can control how I show up for people. I can’t control a shitty situation, but I can control my perspective on it. And at the end of the day, everything is perspective.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbfac9124-ca07-4222-bf43-529ab518a0bb.heic)
I heard something funny on a podcast relating to this same thing - we don’t have THE TIME to dabble and live in indecisiveness (or for me living in this anxious and overthinking state) - you could be hit by a bus tomorrow. Choose to lean in or lean out. It’s funny (maybe a bit morbid) but it’s true. Choose to ruminate on the things you are grateful for and make decisions in your control instead. This is a work in progress for me, easier said than done, but it is a much better way of living life.
Tip of the week for a better you
Have you ever had a sleep hangover? Like you wake up so groggy and tired, in a brain foggy state, and it feels like no amount of coffee can lift the fog? It is so frustrating because you could’ve gotten 9+ hours of sleep but you feel utterly unproductive the entire day because of that groggy feeling. Well.. I learned something that has CHANGED MY LIFE. And it is so simple.
I did not know until recently that most of the time that this was happening to me were on mornings where I was snoozing my alarm. As Mel Robbins explains it: when you wake up, your brain is ready to wake up. When you drift back into sleep *after waking up + pressing snooze button* your brain starts a new sleep cycle which can take 75-90 minutes. When your next alarm goes back off after 10 minutes, you are like WOAH - you fell back into a DEEP sleep (me personally I have wild dreams in those 10 minutes). That is because you are only 10 minutes into a 75 minute sleep cycle. When you interrupt that, it can take your brain 4 hours to get through that groggy feeling.
The solution? Wake up when your alarm goes off. Don’t set yourself up for snoozing in the morning. Count to three and get up. I have started doing this and I have noticed an incredible difference not only on my energy levels in the morning but throughout the entire day. And when I do snooze, I FEEL it. It really does make sense. Even knowing this information has given me the motivation to not press snooze in the morning, try it out for a few days and let me know what you think. I am telling you, it’s worth it.
Seasonal Recipe
Heirloom Tomato Garlic Butter Pizza (with a homemade sprouted spelt dough)
Stilllll looking for more fun ways to use all my heirloom tomatoes (I seriously have a problem). Pizza is one of those meals that always sounds delicious and is versatile because you can really put anything on it that you want. Choose your base, choose your toppings, choose your wine pairing, it’s such a fun activity.
This pizza dough and pizza itself comes together super quick. The dough is easy to make and roll out (just need to prep it ~1 hour before you want to make pizzas), it is sturdy to hold all the delicious pizza toppings but also light and fluffy and it just tastes amazing.
Also… this pizza toppings combination is truly insane. I was planning on having leftovers but it was so good it ended up being a pizza for one. One person and one night only. Devoured. Even though I ate the whole thing I didn’t feel sickly full either, I felt content, which is the best feeling ever. Anyyyywayyyyss: Let’s get into it…