Why Are We so Prone to Stress?

Sabry Negm

— 2 min read

Last night while stressing over a unit test on biodiversity where we were literally given the answers the night prior to the exam. I questioned why I was feeling so worried. after all I had done the practice test twice and aced it both times, so why was I feeling this way and why do others tend to have the same emotions around similar situations.

My Thoughts 🤔

Something that I've come to learn overtime is that the brain loves negativity, positivity is alright but it loves negative thoughts. I haven't done research around this theory but I think your mind is trying to resort back to its primitive thinking by considering the risks involved in something even if you can't avoid doing it, only there aren't that many massive risks for the average person in the modern era, at least nothing compared to back when people lived in caves, you typically aren't facing the risk of getting eaten by a mountain lion these days. What needs to be realized is that you aren't your mind, you are simply the observer of your mind. your mind could pop all sorts of risks involved with something but in the end its your choice wether you are held captive by it. What I mean is, 90% of the thoughts you have are never going to occur, and even if they do believe me when I say its never as deep as you think it is; they are never as bad as you perceive them to be.

Ex: I was stressing that I would fail my test; I took it today and it was really easy for me. That being said, if I did fail my test it wouldn't have made as much of an impact on me than I thought it would last night.

I like to think of my mind as a salmon swimming through the cold Pacific Ocean looking for food, food being my thoughts. But, some thoughts are bait just trying to screw you over, really observe your dinner even if you're starving don't just throw yourself at it. You aren't alone everyone has their type of anxiety, some people are just better at hiding it than others.

Conclusion

Overthinking steered me through one of the hardest time periods of my life after my sister left for university and I went through a pretty bad depression, there is no doubt some days it still takes me captive. However, recently I have become more aware of my thoughts and I advise you to do the same. Ask yourself before you start overthinking, "Is this idea actually relevant or realistic?" Then you’ll come to realize it really isn’t most of the time. Thanks for reading I've been thinking of making this topic for a while now. Stay safe y'all. Goodbye.

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