The power of overthinking lies in your ability to make it one.

Everyone’s always trying to find a solution to overthinking (including me), which often means seeking ways to stop it.

Overthinking has a negative connotation in society, which can be discouraging, seeing as most of us struggle with it.

But what if we could reframe our minds and believe that overthinking is actually a good thing?

What are the benefits of overthinking, and how can it improve our lives?

Would we be more willing to optimize our overthinking tendencies for good rather than bad?

If overthinking is something that we’ll never be able to overcome as a society and remove from the gene pool from being passed down to generations beyond us, shouldn’t we learn how to let it improve instead of control and oftentimes ruin our lives?

If you believe that overthinking has the potential to be a blessing in disguise, consider these seven ways in which overthinking can be viewed in a positive light.

#1 Enhance Your Creativity

We all know how good we are at coming up with imaginary scenarios in our heads.

But what we don’t realize is that we’re flexing our creative minds when we do this.

With overthinking comes creativity that we can use to our advantage in our everyday lives.

The more frequently you flex your creative muscles, the stronger they get. Instead of using creativity to overthink and create false realities, use it to come up with innovative ideas.

#2 Better Your Problem-Solving Skills

Along with the fake scenarios we imagine, we get really good at working through and solving the imaginary problems we create.

While thinking through every possible scenario can cause anxiety and stress, it can also make you a better problem solver and allow you to think outside the box.

The next time you feel yourself trying to find the solution to imaginary problems, pivot and try to find solutions to real problems you experience. Use your overthinking tendencies to take action against a real problem to create peace in your life.

#3 Attention to Detail

Overthinkers tend to be those who pay close attention to the details.

Whether the details of people, their words, and body language, or the details of a financial spreadsheet, the overarching theme of a book, or the implicit tips of a Medium article.

The attention to detail that comes along with overthinking can be used to your advantage by separating yourself from those who don’t, which often makes you the best in your craft.

Instead of paying attention to the details of someone’s actions towards you and then overthinking and magnifying the meaning of those details, use details to enhance your life. Paying attention to details can help you avoid costly mistakes at work or become a better writer on Medium. It can allow you to better connect with those around you and live a purpose-filled life.

#4 Thorough Decision Making

Being an overthinker means you likely contemplate all (or many) aspects of a decision in an effort to ease your anxiety, but you actually end up making it worse by doing so.

Instead of stressing yourself out by all the possibilities, use your tendency to overthink to make the most informed decision you can.

This allows you to rest assured knowing that you’re equipped to make the best decision that has the most favorable outcome, rather than freaking out about all the possible outcomes.

Thinking through decisions before committing to something is important. But it’s only valuable if it enhances your ability to make decisions, not hinders your ability. You need to know where to draw the line and actually make the decision, instead of remaining in analysis paralysis.

#5 Self-Awareness

Overthinking naturally promotes self-awareness as you contemplate all aspects of yourself and a situation.

Having a high sense of self-awareness allows you a competitive advantage against others who are clueless as to how their words, actions, habits, and routines impact themselves and their lives.

Self-awareness is great to have but only when you use it to enhance your life rather than letting it destroy you. It’s especially helpful in job interviews when you know exactly where your skills and talents lie and how you can positively contribute to a company.

#6 Strong Communication

Overthinking has the ability to promote strong communication when used properly.

Communication goes beyond just the words you say and includes the tone you use, body language you have, when and where you communicate, and to whom you’re communicating.

When you use overthinking to make your communication stronger, you’re able to avoid misinterpretation of what you’re trying to communicate. You’re also better able to say what you want to say rather than speak on an impulse reaction. This fosters a peaceful environment when communicating.

#7 Continuous Learning

Finally, overthinking leads to the natural desire for continuous learning.

When you overthink a situation or event, it often prompts questions that can lead to the quest for discovery and learning.

The pursuit of knowledge makes you apt to be a lifelong learner. It’s important to be pursuing knowledge that advances your abilities to progress in a positive direction. It’s okay for overthinking to lead to more questions…take advantage of this and actually find the answers.

Real Talk

Overthinking doesn’t have to be something that makes you lose control, enables your anxiety, or makes you feel stressed out.

If we reframe our minds even just a little bit to recognize the ways in which overthinking has served us, then we use overthinking for our advantage rather than to our disadvantage.

Society pushes us to destroy the bad, which would mean trying to stop overthinking at any cost.

We have the choice, though, and we can choose to build the good and recognize the ways in which overthinking can positively contribute to our lives.

So, what will you choose?