The Analyzer’s focus is primarily on how the past relates to the present. Their overthinking is consumed by what if thoughts. By ruminating on what if’s about their past experience, The Analyzer believes they can avoid undesirable outcomes that they’ve already experienced repeating in the future.

All of those what if questions, though, really are an attempt to answer the larger question that The Analyzer is concerned with: How did I get here?

Because in their heart, The Analyzer isn’t satisfied with some element of their current situation, and unlike other archetypes who might try to wield control over external situations or over other people to solve for their own happiness, The Analyzer likes to think that they wield control over the past and their past self.

The Analyzer’s unique skillset is making comparisons—between themselves and other people, but more commonly between who they are now and who they thought they would be or who they want to be. They believe the way to clear the path to a future in which they’re the person they really want to be is to dissect every part of the path behind them.

The Analyzer is accustomed to thinking that they could have done better, and when a solution to a problem that they’re working on in their mind is either too obvious or too complex they don’t trust that it’s useful.

The Analyzer tends to get stuck in their ways in their life as they focus on what came before that they can no longer control, rather than looking forward and making decisions and taking action connected to what they do have control over.

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NOW WHAT?

Is your mind already chewing on what all of this means?

Or maybe you’re second guessing your results…are you really another archetype??

And are you wondering how to apply the insights about your overthinking archetype to stop overthinking and start trusting yourself?

Don’t worry. I got you.

First, I encourage you to take a breath or two, and shake off any of the tightness in your body. You don’t have to figure anything out right now.

But here’s what you can do in the coming days to begin to integrate this information:

1. Start to become more aware of your body.

Because the difference between thinking and overthinking is in how it feels.

Overthinking is like your brain being at battle with itself. Your whole body feels tightly wound, especially your head, neck and shoulders. Your jaw is likely clenched or your brow is deeply creased. Your breath is shallow or you’re holding it, and your heart is beating fast. You might even feel nauseous.

When you’re overthinking, you tend to experience yourself as rigid, edgy or ungrounded. You might feel disconnected, unproductive or checked out, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed or anxious.

This is not who you are. This is you overthinking. And it can be shifted!

You can do something as simple as give your face and neck a quick massage, shake your arms and legs, give yourself a hug, go for a walk…or even sometimes it’s enough to sit or stand up taller to shift your thinking.

Why? Because your body is your greatest tell when it comes to overthinking, and it’s also your greatest ally. Using a bottom up approach (sending info from your body to your brain) is a powerful way to regulate your nervous system and to get you in touch with the inner resources that will help you stop the hamster wheel in your head.

2. Use your mantra.

When you find your body giving you all the overthinking tells, or you catch yourself ruminating on your core question, or you realize that your core fear is lurking under the surface…let that be your sign that it’s time to use your mantra.

Your archetype’s mantra is medicine that’s unique to your core fear. Saying it to yourself is a way of soothing the part of you who may feel scared and is trying to fix feeling scared by overthinking. (Which, by the way, isn’t helpful.)

I get it that it might feel awkward or fake to say your mantra to yourself at first, and that’s ok. But see if you can look for the part of yourself who might be open to letting the words in, or even potentially believing your new mantra. That’s the part of you who will befriend you in moments when your overthinking is taking over.

3. Take action.

As the Analyzer, your wish is to figure out why something happened the way it did so you can avoid future pain or discomfort. In order to get out of your own overthinking trap, I encourage you to set aside some time to feel your feelings about the situation you’re overthinking about.

It could be as simple as offering yourself empathy through the phase “Of course I feel this way.” See how it lands in your body and your brain to not try to ignore how you feel, but focus on offering yourself some warmth and understanding.

You may even try writing your younger self a letter—not to help them fix something—but to let them know how you feel about what happened to them, and to offer your support and presence.

I understand these things might feel flimsy in the face of your mighty overthinking. But they aren’t–giving yourself empathy, even in small increments, starts to rewire your brain to be kinder and quieter.

But it IS only one part of the equation when it comes to shifting your experience.

Just as overthinking is just ONE form of self-sabotage that you’re probably doing.

Overthinking usually runs in the same crowd as things like not trusting your gut, not setting boundaries, and not believing that your insides get to matter. Sound familiar?

And when all of those troublemakers are hanging out with you, it’s hard to feel at home in your own skin. It’s hard to have a good experience of yourself, especially around other people.

Addressing the whole system of self-sabotaging behaviors takes an integrated and holistic approach that includes your body, brain, heart and nervous system.

For over two decades, I’ve been on a mission to give smart, sensitive, self-sabotaging people (like you) the practical tools they need to live in a way where their insides match their outsides and they are trustworthy to themselves.

Because like the “training” you got to NOT do that, changing your capacity to not just know better but do better is a matter of training.

So if you’re ready to have access to the entirety of the training you’d need to stop overthinking (and all the other behaviors on the self-sabotaging menu), I’ve made a signature program that encapsulates everything I’ve learned over the last 20+ years and that has helped hundreds of people like you stop sabotaging themselves and start trusting themselves.

It’s called Yours Truly.™ Click the video below to learn more!

(Pssst…if you don’t think you have the capacity to do the full program right now but you do want a quick and effective mini course (for only $36!) that will help you get at the root of your overthinking check out Yours Truly: The Initiation!)

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