Why You Can’t Stop Overthinking (and How to Actually Get Out of Your Head)
- Heather Alice-Marie
- Apr 6
- 7 min read
There are days where my mind just… won’t stop.
Here I am...
Its 3AM and my mind is looping through work deadlines, conversations I had earlier in the day, and anything else my brain has decided to remind me of.
I'm just lying there replaying things I said (or should have said).
And then it gets worse.
I start overthinking my overthinking.
Now I’m not just stuck in my thoughts…
I’m stuck in the fact that I can’t stop thinking.
The more I try to think my way out of it, the deeper I go.
And all I want to do is go back to sleep because it's getting closer and closer to my alarm going off.
I know you know exactly what I'm talking about and how exhausting this overthinking loop is.
Here is what is happening...
Your mind is trying to create safety, control, and/or certainty.
It's trying to solve a 'problem' that you may or may not want solved.
And here is what is happening beneath the surface
Your thoughts activate an emotion.
That emotion activates a sensation in your body.
And your body is absorbing all of it.
The Shift: Somatic Awareness
So you might be thinking…
ok great, but how do I actually get out of my head?
This is where somatic awareness comes in.
You bring your attention into your body, which drops you out of your current thinking loop.
Your body is always communicating with you.
That gut feeling when you know something is right.
Clenched jaw when you are stressed.
Scrunched shoulders without you even realizing it.
Somatic awareness is becoming aware of those sensations as they’re happening.
In real time.
When you bring your attention there, you'll begin to notice the shift.
You create space between you and your thoughts
And from that space, the overthinking loop will begin to slow down.
The more you pay attention to your body like this, the more you trust it. Somatic intuition is your ability to trust these sensations and not override them.
If you want to go deeper into this, I share more in When I Started Listening to My Body: An Introduction to Somatic Healing
Now that you have an understanding of somatic awareness and somatic intuition, lets take it a step further.
A Simple Somatic Practice to Get Out of Your Head
Next time you feel yourself stuck in a loop, try this somatic practice:
Pause.
Bring your awareness into your body.
Place one hand over your heart and the other on your stomach.
Breathe in through your nose.
Release through your mouth.
Repeat… but this time take a deeper breath.
And when you release, feel the sensation of your exhale.
Then ask yourself:
Where am I holding tension right now?
Shoulders?
Chest?
Stomach?
Lower back?
Elsewhere?
Just notice.
Then take a slow breath and bring your awareness to where you are holding tension.
Breathe into it.
You’ve just dropped out of your head…
and into your body.
Into the present moment.
You’ve created space.
And this is where things start to shift.
Let's keep this going...
Write It Out
Now that you've dropped into your body, here is one of the most powerful ways to slow down overthinking even more.
It's just you and your journal.
You can brain dump everything there.
It's your safe space where there's no judgment.
And you can hear what’s underneath the noise.
It's where you can access deeper layers of yourself.
And what surfaces?
Sometimes your truth.
Sometimes your fears.
Sometimes the pressure you feel to be on all the time. Always doing.
Sometimes it's your body asking you to pay attention.
The list goes on...
Journaling is one of my favorite practices that helps support you in moving what’s been circling in your mind and onto the page so you can see and feel what's true.
Here are a few questions to guide you out of overthinking:
What thoughts are on repeat?
Where do I feel this in my body?
What am I trying to solve, control, or make certain?
What feels true underneath this?
What can I release?
A Guided Way Out of the Overthinking Loop
Somatic practices are meant to be experienced.
When your mind is looping, reading about it can help you understand what’s happening.
Being guided through it helps you shift it.
This is exactly why I created Out of Your Head.
It’s a self-guided somatic practice for overthinking.
Created to help you move out of the mental spiral and back into your body.
Back into the present moment.
Back into your truth.
If overthinking has been loud lately, Out of Your Head is here to support you on that journey.
My Beautiful Friend...
Overthinking is going to happen (and that's ok... it's part of the journey).
But you do not have to stay stuck in the loop.
You can pause, breathe, and bring your awareness back into your body.
And from there, you create space for something different.
More presence.
More truth.
More trust in yourself.
Written with love,
Heather Alice-Marie
P.S. If something in this post landed in your body, trust that. I created a free morning somatic audio to help you get grounded, present, and back in your body.
Let's connect on IG: @heatheralicemarie and Substack💛
About Heather Alice-Marie
Heather Alice-Marie is a somatic energy healing practitioner and the founder of Uncage Your Life.
Through somatic practices and audio experiences, she creates space for you to notice your body's signals and tune into your own somatic intuition.
Overthinking & Somatic Awareness FAQs
Q: Why do I overthink so much?
A: Overthinking is often your mind trying to create safety, control, or certainty. It starts looping through conversations, decisions, deadlines, and imagined outcomes in an effort to solve or prevent something. The problem is, the more you stay in the loop, the harder it becomes to hear what is actually true.
Q: What is happening in my body when I overthink?
A: Overthinking does not just happen in the mind. Your thoughts activate emotion, and that emotion activates sensation in the body. This can show up as a clenched jaw, tight shoulders, a heavy chest, a pit in your stomach, shallow breathing, or tension you didn’t even realize you were holding.
Q: What is somatic awareness?
A: Somatic awareness is the practice of noticing what is happening in your body in real time. It means paying attention to sensations like tension, tightness, breath, heaviness, ease, or subtle body cues. Instead of staying fully in the mental spiral, you bring your awareness into the body and begin to notice what it is communicating.
Q: How does somatic awareness help with overthinking?
A: Somatic awareness helps you get out of your head by shifting your attention into your body. That shift creates space between you and your thoughts. From that space, the overthinking loop can begin to slow down, and you can access more presence, truth, and trust in yourself.
Q: What is somatic intuition?
A: Somatic intuition is your ability to trust the sensations your body is giving you and not override them. It develops through somatic awareness. The more you pay attention to your body, the more you begin to recognize its signals and trust what they are showing you.
Q: How do I get out of my head when I am stuck in an overthinking loop?
A: A simple way to begin is to pause and bring your awareness into your body. Place one hand over your heart and one on your stomach. Take a slow breath in through your nose and release through your mouth. Then ask yourself where you are holding tension right now. That small moment of awareness can help interrupt the loop and bring you back into the present moment.
Q: Can journaling help with overthinking?
A: Yes. Journaling helps move what has been circling in your mind onto the page so you can begin to see and feel what is true. It creates space, supports self-awareness, and helps you hear what is underneath the noise, whether that is truth, fear, pressure, or something your body has been asking you to pay attention to.
Q: What should I journal about when I am overthinking?
A: A few powerful questions to ask are: What thought keeps repeating itself right now? Where am I feeling this in my body? What am I trying to solve, control, or make certain? What feels true underneath all of this? What can I release, even just a little? These kinds of questions help you shift from spiraling into listening.
Q: What is a somatic practice for overthinking?
A: A somatic practice for overthinking is a body-based practice that helps you shift out of the mental spiral and into present-moment awareness. This can include breathing, noticing tension, tracking sensations, placing your hands on your body, journaling after you settle into the body, or listening to a guided somatic audio.
Q: What is Out of Your Head?
A: Out of Your Head is a self-guided somatic practice for overthinking. It was created to support you in moving out of the mental spiral and back into your body, back into the present moment, and back into your truth.
Q: Can somatic practices help with overthinking at night?
A: Yes. Overthinking often gets louder at night when everything is quiet and there is more space for thoughts to loop. Somatic practices can help by bringing your awareness into the body, slowing the spiral, releasing tension, and creating more space for presence and calm before sleep.
Q: How do I start practicing somatic awareness?
A: Start small. Pause for a moment, notice your breath, and ask yourself what you are feeling in your body right now. You do not need to force anything or do it perfectly. The practice begins by paying attention.
Comments