Emonthebrain - The Neuroscience of Overthinking and How To Finally Stop

Episode Date: August 17, 2026

Em breaks down the neuroscience of why your brain won't stop overthinking and gives you three practical tools to close the loop, relinquish control, and finally get some peace of mind. I’m hosting a free MASTERCLASS on the Neuroscience of manifestation and reprogramming your subconscious mind!! Sign up here to save your spot: https://learn.emonthebrain.com/masterclass Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emonthebrain?igsh=aG1wNDY0OXZ1c3pi  I'm Going on Tour! Here's the link to RSVP for your city! https://laylo.com/emonthebrain/m/2jAoUd?utm_id=97760_v0_s00_e0_tv3

If you find yourself constantly overthinking, I'm going to tell you exactly why your brain does this and how to stop it. I used to be a chronic overthinker. I would lay in bed, late at night, overthinking all sorts of things. And then I would start overthinking about all of the sleep that I was losing because I was overthinking, which would start a whole other spiral. But once I understood the neuroscience behind why this happens, the key to stopping it became obvious. And I'm so excited to share these keys with you because I have shared them. Of course, I've used them myself, but I've also shared them with friends, family, clients that I've coached, people that I work with on my team, and they help immediately. So I'm excited to get into them. And if you're new here,

hi, I'm Emily. I'm a neuroscientist by training. I've got plenty of years of research experience in the lab, as well as two degrees in neuroscience. But I am now an author, speaker, and coach to people in over 55 countries all over the world. And I'm here to help you. rewire your brain, regulate your nervous system, and align yourself with the life that you want to live. So let's dive straight into the science because a lot of people tend to think that overthinking is just thinking too much. But it's really not a thinking too much problem because there are two types of thinking. There is productive thinking and then there's rumination. And when we're talking about overthinking, we're talking about rumination, which is where we just think in cycles and your brain just continues to analyze and analyze.

whereas productive thinking, we analyze, we come up with solutions or take action, et cetera, et cetera. So in the brain, you can really think of overthinking, almost as my brain has detected uncertainty, and it believes that thinking more will solve that uncertainty. Now, there are two sort of problems that are associated with overthinking. The first is an open loop problem. The brain treats whatever it is that you're thinking about like an open loop, and it wants to continue. to analyze, continue to think, continue to process until it can finally close that loop. Your brain does not like to have unfinished business. So it keeps unresolved information active in your

brain. And you'll just continue to think and think and think until you can come up with some sort of resolution. So this is the open loop problem where you just continue to think and the loop is open. And then another huge piece when it comes to overthinking is that overthinking creates the illusion of control. The future is inherently uncertain, but your brain wants to try to solve it. And thinking feels like doing something. This might sound really simple, but from here, understanding what the problems associated with overthinking are in the brain, the solutions become really, really obvious. Solution number one is to close the loop. Now, this can happen in a couple of different ways. The first way that I really love to close the loop, it's available

to anyone, anytime, anywhere is to do something called a brain dump. I have had people that I work with on my team. Call me. And I remember one time specifically I had someone that I work with call me. And he was at an event and he was overthinking something and he called me for help. And he's like, I just keep overthinking this thing and it's ruining me being here in the present moment. Like it's taking all of my joy out of the present moment. I just want to have fun at this event, but I'm overthinking. And I said, you need to take two. to five minutes, go step aside and brain dump. Get your phone out. You can do it in your notes app in your phone. You can do it in your voice memos in your phone and brain dump everything that you

are thinking, everything that you are feeling. Get it all out. This helps your brain to close the loop when it feels that it has gotten it all out. It also really helps to close the loop because a lot of the time, your brain will keep information active in your mind because it doesn't want to forget it. It doesn't want to lose it, right? And this is also really helpful if you're doing work and you find yourself to be distracted by like, oh, I need to do the laundry or I need to go take the kids or whatever it is. I've had this before. What you do is you'll just have a notes open, like have it minimized. And when thoughts come up, you pull the notes app out and you write it down. Or you can have a journal on the side. Now what this does is it allows.

your brain to rest. It doesn't have to keep this unresolved situation or this information active because it knows that it's somewhere else. So rather than continuing to have to think about, oh, I'm upset about this, this is a problem, this is here, this is that, whatever, whatever, your brain can actually fully rest. At least the information is somewhere else. It doesn't have to keep replaying everything in your mind. Another way to close the loop that is super, super effective is to take action now. I actually did this the other night. I was laying in bed thinking about how I needed to message someone back, someone that I work with,

and I just didn't know exactly what I wanted to say. I kind of like, I don't want to say ghosted her, but I kind of ghosted just for like a day or so. I was like, I really need to message her back. And I'm laying in bed thinking about it. And immediately in my head, I go, no, I just need to message her back right now. It doesn't matter if it's 11.30 p.m. at night. It doesn't matter what time of day it is. it doesn't matter. And something that actually this exact person that I needed to message back,

something that we talked about on our last call was if you have the thought, do it now. Like, if it takes less than five minutes, just do it now. A lot of the time, we also tend to overthink because we have so many of these open loops in our minds. We have all of these things that we need to do that we just put off and they're small tasks. And we allow these small tasks to build up. And now we have so many things to think about, so many things that need to be held in the back of our minds. This is cognitively demanding. This drains our mental energy. So if you have the thought, and it's something that you can do in five, ten minutes, do it now. It's worth it to spend the ten minutes to just do it now so that you don't have to think about it later. It can also be really helpful for moments like that to have a journal or a notebook on your bedside table.

And I used to do this as well. I used to like all the things. time, get just ideas. As I'm falling asleep, boom, light bulb moment, just get these ideas, these inspirations. And my mind would just try to replay them over and over so I wouldn't forget for the morning. And I finally just decided to keep a notebook by my bedside table. That way, when it would happen, I could turn and just write it down really quick. And I wouldn't need to overthink and hold that information in my mind and try to replay it and replay it. Because again, that leads to overthinking. The second solution to overthinking, stem. from the second problem associated with overthinking, which is that overthinking creates the illusion

of control. So the solution here is to relinquish control. I know that can be easier said than done, but if there isn't some sort of action that you can take right now to resolve whatever open loop you have, then it's not within your control. And something that I have realized in my time working with clients and also just through my research and reading all these different studies about this specific topic is that a lot of people struggle with tolerance for uncertainty. The future is inherently uncertain. And so learning to be able to accept that we don't know what's going to happen and that we don't know what today holds, we don't know what tomorrow holds, I think that it's actually a beautiful thing, you know, like with uncertainty a lot of the time, people tend to think, oh, no,

like we don't know what the future holds, but that can actually be a very positive thing as well. You have no idea what's going to happen today. Congratulations. You have no idea what's going to happen today. Something great could knock on your door. Something beautiful could fall onto your doorstep or you could get a message or an email with an opportunity. I actually had a friend who had been, she graduated, had been waiting for a job. She graduated from grad school. And she, she, the other day, called me like, oh my God, I got a job. And it's like, you have no idea when the thing that waiting on is coming or, you know, just how things can turn in a positive direction for you. So things being uncertain, the future being uncertain, doesn't have to be a negative thing at all.

It can actually be a quite beautiful thing. I'll tell you how I use this in practice. I was laying in bed one night this past week and I was thinking about a situation that's been going on with someone on my team. And I was waiting on a meeting that someone else on my team was having the next day to provide me more information so that I, I could make a more proper decision about the other situation that I was having, if that's not super obscure. Essentially, I was waiting on a conversation and a meeting to be had the next day,

and I couldn't make any sort of decision. I couldn't take any sort of action until after this meeting happened the next day, because I just didn't know what the person was going to say in the meeting tomorrow. I'm laying there just thinking about the situation, and I had to just affirm to my brain. I just told my brain, like, hey, there's nothing we can do right now. We are waiting on information that we are going to get tomorrow. And so there's no point in thinking about this. I did my brain dump about it. I dumped all of my thoughts about the situation, all of the different nuances and caveats and every little detail.

And then I was like, you know, now I can just rest in the present moment and wait until more information is provided to me tomorrow. And so if there's not anything you can do right now, if there's no solution that can come through thinking about it, then the best course of action, is to relinquish control and recognize that this thing is not your task. And sometimes time really does give us the clarity that we are needing, that we are waiting on. And so relinquishing control, recognizing that time brings you answers and clarity and solutions that overthinking right now won't be able to bring you. Solution number three is to alchemize the energy for creation or action. Stop feeding the loop and use the energy that you're saying.

thoughts are creating this mental energy towards something useful and productive. Use the energy for creation to do something that you can control. I cannot tell you how many times I have been in situations where I have, I could just lay around and overthink about something, but instead I investigate like, oh, like what's going on? What's the neuroscience behind this? And I end up getting super inspired and creating content, creating videos about the exact situation that I am in and people love it and it does great. Like that content actually ends up doing amazing because I am literally taking the energy of overthinking, taking the energy of the situation that I am in, alchemizing it, transmuting it into creation, into action. And so sometimes you have to realize

that sitting around thinking about the things that you fear, it only, feeds your energy into that fear. You are feeding the loop by just sitting around and thinking about it. Fears love it when you do that because the fears that you do not face that you do not run toward become your limits. But when you run straight at your fears, when you take action in the face of uncertainty, your fears will run from you. Sometimes the only way out is through and there's no benefit to you to sit around and feed the loop, feed the situation that you are in, to feed the story that your brain keeps replaying, that you don't even necessarily know is true or is going to come true, right? And rather than feed that loop, feed something that will actually benefit

you. Use this energy toward creation. Use this energy and take action. Now, these are all solutions that you can use in real time. I do just want to add one more bonus solution that is more of a regulatory tool, and it is meditation. I really, really struggled to fall asleep at night, like back years and years ago before I started meditating when I first was beginning my journey. I really struggled to fall asleep at night. I really struggled with overthinking.

I really struggled with stress and anxiety. And daily meditation really truly changed my life. It changed my brain. It changed the way that my brain works. And I have noticed a significant difference. I don't struggle to fall asleep at night because I can use. these solutions that I just provided you, but I also have built a foundation through activities

that regulate my nervous system. And if you are interested in learning more about regulating your nervous system, I actually already have a video that I have that's on here that you can go and watch and I break down regulating your nervous system step by step. So definitely go check out that video. If that is something that you are interested in, that is something that you want to do. I am also hosting a free masterclass on the neuroscience of manifestation, on the neuroscience of reprogramming your subconscious mind, the neuroscience of what that actually is and what that means. Very soon, so check out the link in the description so that you can RSVP to save your seat for that class. I am also going on tour very soon, and we are using your RSVPs to choose which cities we're going to

come to. So make sure to RSVP for your city with the link in the description below, because that's how we're going to choose where we come on tour. Thank you so much for watching. I'm sending you so much love and I hope you have an absolute incredible week. See next time. Bye.