How To Stop Overthinking And Use Your Intuition As A Decision-Making Tool
Written by: Kristina Todorova, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Do you tend to overthink? A lot of new business owners do.
I used to be one of them and this is why I know that overthinking can be a massive barrier to effective decision-making and can stop you from taking action on your aspirations and projects. It can also kill your self-confidence and even deteriorate your mental health. Research shows that chewing on problems and stressful situations repeatedly increases the risk of developing anxiety and depression.
So, why do we tend to overthink, sometimes to the point of having sleepless nights and experiencing anxiety?
The answer is simple. There’s too much at stake, we’ve taken a risk of starting a business we are solely responsible for and want to make sure that we “do things right”. We are terrified of making mistakes and want to avoid failing at all costs, hence we keep evaluating the pros and the cons, envisioning worst-case scenarios, and letting our minds create so much noise that we are unable to hear our intuition and experience a state of clarity.
Yes, we all have an intuition, and our intuition is an excellent decision navigation tool but our tendency to overthink blocks it. We usually know, in our gut, what the best course of action is. It’s there - on an intuitive level, and all we need to do is quiet our rational mind and listen.
As Albert Einstein says:
“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the gift.”
How can we, as business owners, access this sacred gift and use it to improve our decision-making skills?
By practising meditation.
Breath-focused meditation is a practice that allows us to slow down our mind and free it from thoughts by focusing on our breathing. When our mind is quiet and there are no racing thoughts, we begin to experience a state of stillness and clarity.
Scientists, who have examined what happens to the brain during non-guided meditation, have discovered that when we meditate our brain exudes Theta waves. There is a constant electrical activity that takes place in our brains and the waves that are generated vary in their vibrational frequencies (you can read more about the five different brainwaves and the state of being, during which they occur here ).
Stimulating our brain to produce Theta waves, through breath-focused meditation, allows us to enter a deep state of relaxation, access our intuition, and develop our ability to connect with, in spiritual terms, the non-physical energy within us, often referred to as the Universe, Higher Intelligence, or - our Higher Self.
Not once or twice I have personally experienced this powerful spiritual connection and benefited from receiving insights, inspiration, and guidance in the form of thoughts (my own thoughts – I would like to clarify) that “came to me” whilst I was in a deep meditation state. In those moments, I found myself knowing exactly what to do and how to do it, and following my “inner knowing” led to creating useful business connections and launching new products and services. Nowadays, using intuitive guidance has become a key part of how I navigate my business and life, and the quickest way for me to tap into it is by practising meditation.
Getting started with breath-focused meditation
If you are new to breath-focused meditation, the quickest way to learn how to meditate is by first learning how to pay attention to the movement of your breath as you breathe in and out. Follow the instructions below to get started.
1. Sit in a quiet space with your back straight (you can even lie down).
2. Start taking deep, slow breaths and feel how your stomach and chest expand as you breathe in and how they deflate as you breathe out.
3. Keep your attention purely on your breathing and as thoughts come, let them pass and do not engage with them.
4. Complete a few breathing cycles and aim for practising at least 10 minutes of deep, mindful breathing every day.
In time and, as you become better at focusing purely on your breathing, you will also become better at detaching from your thoughts and quieting your mind completely, thus entering a deep state of meditation.
I’ve got a free meditation guide that teaches you the exact breath-focused meditation that I do, which helps me to fully quiet my mind and activate my inner knowing. You can download the guide here.
Next time you find yourself stuck in your head and dwelling on the same problem over and over again with no clear sign of getting to a solution or making a decision, just pause and breathe. And, remember: there is a knowing within you which is an excellent decision-making tool that you can tap into at any moment.
Kristina Todorova, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
"Kristina is a certified Transformational Life Coach and Founder of Coaching for Transformers – a coaching & training company dedicated to helping people learn how to utilise the creative power of their mind and energy to build a life around their passions, talents, and heart’s desires.
Following working as a trainer and corporate coach and helping hundreds of professionals reach a heightened level of performance, she decided to leave the corporate world and embark on the path of entrepreneurship. She founded Coaching for Transformers in 2017 and has, since then, been working with aspiring and new entrepreneurs, helping them create businesses and lives around what lights them up.
Kristina believes that each person is born with a unique set of gifts, talents, passions, and interests, and, through exploring and following them, one can consciously create a life full of fulfilment, joy, and abundance. Her purpose is to help people step onto a path that feels aligned and teach them how to use their mind as a tool to help them realise their definition of success."
