Strength TogetHER 18 - Session 7
"Stop overthinking, you are only creating problems that aren't there."
Lokopakar is a youth-based organization running different projects all over Nepal. Strength Together is one of the programs where groups of girls come together to share their stories and inspire each other through their experiences and ideas. Strength TogetHER first started running its sessions online, then ran its projects in physical presence, and now is continuing its sessions online due to the rising covid cases all over the country.
On 29th Jan, the girls of Jyotidaya school decided to continue their session online on the topic "Overthinking." In this session, they shared what makes them overthink. The session was moderated by the members of Lokopakar, Ms.Barsha Tamang and Ms.Anisha Prajapati.
The first speaker shared that her overthinking panics her during her exams. In some cases, she has frozen while writing. But now she has learned a technique, she acknowledges that she is overthinking and does some calming exercises to cope with the situation. This is helping her.
Then one of our moderators shared that she used to overthink in school, especially during her exams. If her first paper didn't go well, she could not concentrate well on other subjects. This weakness was pointed out by her Principal. Since then, she is aware that she should not get stuck on her past exams to perform better overall.
Our speaker shared that she used to keep standing when in her periods thinking that she might have stains and people would judge her.
Our speaker shared how overthinking occurred in her family. Her little sister got a fever induced by a toothache while everyone thought she got COVID and took COVID precautions.
Another speaker quickly added that recently she had a small fight with her mom and brother. She got upset, locked herself in the room, and started assuming that her brother and mother do not love her and started being negative about them and fell asleep. When she woke up the next day, she realized that she was thinking a lot.
Our speaker shared that she got her recent period about 2-3 days late. This scared her so much that she started thinking she is suffering from some kind of disease. She started blaming herself that her unhealthy habits like eating junk food were the cause.
One of the participants shared that overthinking occurs to her on the result day. She gets worried about how the family will react to her result, especially her brother, as he is strict with her studies.
We talked about the times when we wore the wrong uniform, had a different hairstyle than usual, when we got stains on our clothes and when we were disappointed with our friends. We realized that each time we were overthinking. Our overthinking made it a problem. We realized if we had not thought that much, we would have not suffered.
Then we came to the takeaways segment, which is as follows:
- Never make a decision when you are too sad or too happy.
- Try to address your situation that you are going through overthinking.
- Get engaged with your hobby, meditation, anything to distract yourself from overthinking.
- Take a walk, communicate with friends and try to relate with others.
- Think about the solution, be positive.
- Analyze the things you can control and things you can't control.
Then we virtually bid goodbye, promising to meet soon.
Written by - Ahana Dhakal (Lokopakar)
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