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Why Your Brain Won’t Shut Off: Breaking the Overthinking Loop
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If overthinking burned calories, half of us would already be in our goal jeans. Instead, it’s burning us out. It’s impacting our sleep, time, and sanity. In this episode of Life Coaches Unfiltered, Desiree, Michelle, and Doree get honest about what happens when your brain won’t shut off, you’re "catastrophizing" every scenario, and you’re replaying past conversations on a loop.
They unpack what overthinking actually is, how it shows up as rumination about the past and worry about the future, and why your nervous system believes worst-case scenarios are keeping you safe.
Along the way, they share real-life stories - from ice-storm prep with contingency plans all the way to Z, to lying awake worrying about insurance claims, to imagining you’ve ruined a relationship just because someone hasn’t texted back.
You’ll also hear how perfectionism, people-pleasing, grief, and busyness all feed overthinking, and where the line is between healthy reflection and mental torture. Most importantly, the coaches offer simple, practical tools you can use right away: how to notice when you’re looping, how to get thoughts out of your head and onto paper, and how to gently question your own stories with “Is this true?” and “Where is the evidence?”.
In this episode, we cover:
- What overthinking is and how it differs from problem-solving
- Rumination about the past vs. anxiety about the future
- Real-life examples of catastrophizing (storms, insurance, step-parenting, texts)
- How grief and constant busyness can delay emotions until you finally slow down
- The perfectionism trap and analysis paralysis at work and at home
- When overthinking becomes a problem (sleep, looping, stalled decisions, relationships)
- List-making, brain dumps, and time-limited “thinking windows”
- Becoming your own inner coach with evidence checks and kinder self-talk
- How to approach conversations when you’re afraid you hurt someone
You’ll walk away with:
- Language to spot when you’ve crossed from planning into overthinking
- Practical tools to interrupt 3 AM spirals and fall asleep more easily
- A way to question your stories without gaslighting yourself
Permission to take one small imperfect action instead of waiting for things to feel perfect
Desiree, compassionate Grief Mentor & Coach. Helping midlife humans learn and grow from grief & loss.
Book a free Connection call with Desiree
Support the show
***** Connect with the Coaches *****
Michelle Hibbert
Doree O’Neal
Desiree Doucet
Do you have any questions you'd like the coaches to answer? Awesome - we'd love to hear from you! You can submit questions via this form and we'll answer them in a future episode: https://forms.gle/QMPqRrvhvkzezPRn6
Intro & Outro background music provided by: Bliss by Luke Bergs | / bergscloud Creative Commons - Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/
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By Life CoachesSend a text
If overthinking burned calories, half of us would already be in our goal jeans. Instead, it’s burning us out. It’s impacting our sleep, time, and sanity. In this episode of Life Coaches Unfiltered, Desiree, Michelle, and Doree get honest about what happens when your brain won’t shut off, you’re "catastrophizing" every scenario, and you’re replaying past conversations on a loop.
They unpack what overthinking actually is, how it shows up as rumination about the past and worry about the future, and why your nervous system believes worst-case scenarios are keeping you safe.
Along the way, they share real-life stories - from ice-storm prep with contingency plans all the way to Z, to lying awake worrying about insurance claims, to imagining you’ve ruined a relationship just because someone hasn’t texted back.
You’ll also hear how perfectionism, people-pleasing, grief, and busyness all feed overthinking, and where the line is between healthy reflection and mental torture. Most importantly, the coaches offer simple, practical tools you can use right away: how to notice when you’re looping, how to get thoughts out of your head and onto paper, and how to gently question your own stories with “Is this true?” and “Where is the evidence?”.
In this episode, we cover:
- What overthinking is and how it differs from problem-solving
- Rumination about the past vs. anxiety about the future
- Real-life examples of catastrophizing (storms, insurance, step-parenting, texts)
- How grief and constant busyness can delay emotions until you finally slow down
- The perfectionism trap and analysis paralysis at work and at home
- When overthinking becomes a problem (sleep, looping, stalled decisions, relationships)
- List-making, brain dumps, and time-limited “thinking windows”
- Becoming your own inner coach with evidence checks and kinder self-talk
- How to approach conversations when you’re afraid you hurt someone
You’ll walk away with:
- Language to spot when you’ve crossed from planning into overthinking
- Practical tools to interrupt 3 AM spirals and fall asleep more easily
- A way to question your stories without gaslighting yourself
Permission to take one small imperfect action instead of waiting for things to feel perfect
Desiree, compassionate Grief Mentor & Coach. Helping midlife humans learn and grow from grief & loss.
Book a free Connection call with Desiree
Support the show
***** Connect with the Coaches *****
Michelle Hibbert
Doree O’Neal
Desiree Doucet
Do you have any questions you'd like the coaches to answer? Awesome - we'd love to hear from you! You can submit questions via this form and we'll answer them in a future episode: https://forms.gle/QMPqRrvhvkzezPRn6
Intro & Outro background music provided by: Bliss by Luke Bergs | / bergscloud Creative Commons - Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/