Get Out Of My Head Book: A Brief Intro
Get Out Of My Head: Inspiration for Overthinkers in an Anxious World By Meredith Arthur is a powerful and poignant book that speaks to anyone who struggles with overthinking and anxiety. It’s full of real-life stories, tips, tactics, and tools to help people manage their thoughts and get out of their own heads.
The book focuses on understanding how fear affects our thought processes and emotions. The author also provides a framework for setting clear intentions, developing self-awareness, and implementing positive habits to achieve a healthier mindset.
Throughout the book, Meredith provides a wealth of real-life examples, as well as actionable tips and tactics for recognizing our thoughts, shifting our mental state into more productive patterns, and getting out of our own heads. She also advocates for building supportive connections with others—both online and offline—to further help conquer our mental obstacles.
The book is written in a conversational, easy-to-read style, making it accessible to everyone regardless of their level of anxiety or overthinking. It’s full of helpful advice on how to recognize your thoughts and break free from the cycle of fear and anxiety.
About The Author
Meredith Skrzypek Arthur, a writer and video producer from San Francisco, has encountered various forms of stress and emerged with stories to share. As an early advocate for normalizing mental health discussions, Meredith established the Beautiful Voyager website in 2015, catering to overthinkers, perfectionists, and individuals who aim to please others. Additionally, she serves as the editor of Invisible Illness, Medium’s most extensive mental health publication.
Valuable Insights From Get Out Of My Head Book
Here in this section, I want to highlight some of the valuable insights from Get Out Of My Head book which can help you in managing your thoughts and mental well-being:
Understanding Your Hormonal Waves
When faced with intense stress or anxiety, it’s common to view all its manifestations as negative. You may think, “Here I am again: overwhelmed, sweating, and feeling dizzy from nervousness. This is evidence that I’m losing control.” However, by breaking down the experience into individual components, you can turn the wave to your advantage.
Keep in mind that your body releases a burst of hormones, especially epinephrine (also known as adrenaline), in response to stress or worrisome thoughts. These hormones trigger various physical symptoms such as chest tightness, tingling limbs, heart palpitations, nausea, or dizziness. Since these symptoms are tangible indications of the hormonal wave, you can use this awareness to accept the wave and its eventual passing.
By familiarizing yourself with the wave, you begin to alter your relationship with stress and overthinking, making it an excellent starting point for your journey.
TRY: Consider those physical sensations like dizziness, nausea, neck pain, headaches, and heart palpitations could be signs of hormonal surges affecting your system.
Embrace the Shaking – It’s Time to Rejoice
Now that you can recognize the hormonal wave affecting your system, it’s time to learn how to appreciate its departure. Have you ever experienced a trembling sensation or weakness in your knees or chest after stress or panic has subsided? This shakiness indicates that the hormone wave is receding, and contrary to what you might have believed, it’s actually a positive sign.
Reframing, or creating a new narrative for an old thought, is an essential technique for all overthinkers. Throughout this book, you’ll learn more about reframing, but let’s start with the hormone wave’s retreat. Instead of interpreting shaky knees or a weak stomach as something negative, reframe those feelings into something positive: relief from stress, which means you’ll be alright.
By embracing the understanding that the wave is passing, you are celebrating your ability to coexist with the surge and safely reach the shore. As you repeatedly acknowledge your resilience, you’ll create a virtuous cycle that strengthens your capacity to confront the next wave.
TRY: Celebrate the shakiness as the wave recedes instead of avoiding it. This positive mindset signifies that you’re becoming stronger with each experience. Plus, read some relevant books that help you in such moments such as The Survivors, The Rewire, Stop Overthinking, The Happiest Man on the Earth, and so on.
Accepting That You Can’t Always Satisfy Everyone
By embracing the wave, you are developing self-awareness about the physical aspects of overthinking. This is an excellent opportunity to focus on the other side of the equation: self-acceptance.
This effort is particularly crucial for people pleasers.
Seeking the approval of those around you—especially romantic partners, close friends, parents, and bosses—is quite normal. Nurturing these relationships is, of course, an essential aspect of being human. However, obsessing over minute relationship issues, filling journals with what-ifs and regrets, and fixating on the potential implications of minor social interactions are clear indicators of overthinking. These tendencies can be a significant distraction, preventing us from focusing on what truly matters: the chance to align our thoughts and feelings. In other words, if we dwell on past moments that we cannot change, we risk missing the opportunity to act on what’s important in the present.
TRY: Embrace the reality that it’s impossible to please everyone. Dwelling on perceived disagreements can skew your perception, causing minor conflicts to appear more significant than they are to others.
Defend Your Mind
First, pinpoint the everyday stressors that could benefit from a protective boundary. It could be the constant barrage of negative news on the internet or the morning rush to arrive at work before your boss. One Beautiful Voyager shared, “I sometimes find myself immersed in other people’s problems in unhealthy ways. I want to help, but often end up feeling disheartened on their behalf.”
If this resonates with you, consider developing a personal catchphrase for protection.
“Protect the head” is a boxing principle. If a professional boxer takes a hit to the head, they’re likely down for the count. Overthinkers share similarities with boxers in this regard.
The right catchphrase allows you to change direction instantly, disrupting the hormone surge before the wave builds. Is social media overwhelming you with the world’s problems? Protect the head and close the app. Is arriving at work before your boss causing chaos in your family’s routine? Protect the head and schedule a meeting with your boss to discuss schedules.
Keep in mind that mental health requires a “put on your oxygen mask first, then help others” approach. By identifying moments when a boundary can help you breathe easier and using your catchphrase for support, you’ll be better equipped to assist others in difficult situations.
TRY: Create a simple catchphrase to establish a defensive boundary for your mind. The right phrase will enable you to let go and take action.
Dispel These Common Misconceptions
A common belief is that overthinking, stress, and anxiety are helpful, pushing individuals to complete tasks on time. For example, if someone is stressed about their messy house, they ensure it gets cleaned quickly. Worry appears to lead to greater achievements.
While this may seem logical, both personal experience and science firmly disagree. Fear, excessive cortisol, and adrenaline surges in your body do not help you achieve more. In reality, these hormone surges hinder your progress, and you succeed despite them. Don’t credit your overactive fight-or-flight response; instead, give yourself the recognition you deserve. Then, imagine how much more enjoyable those accomplishments would have been without the hormonal chaos.
TRY: Accept that overthinking, stress, and anxiety aren’t helping you complete tasks, despite what you may have believed in the past.
You can better cope with such kinds of things if you would be good at emotional and social intelligence. Having some social and emotional intelligence can help you in understanding yourself and others. If you are interested to equip yourself with emotional intelligence then I would recommend the readings of Daniel Goleman.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, the hormone surge is inevitable when overthinking kicks in. However, you can learn to recognize and accept its presence and reframe it as a positive sign of resilience instead of a negative one. Additionally, create boundaries for your mind through catchphrases that help put a stop to anxious thoughts before they can take hold. Finally, disengage from the false belief that anxiousness leads to greater achievement; instead, acknowledge yourself for the success that you have achieved despite it. With time and practice, these techniques will help you become better equipped to handle the hormone wave and enjoy a life free of overthinking.
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