Top 14 'Cognitive-Unknotting' Exercises to do for Overthinkers Trapped in a Worry Loop
Does your mind ever feel like a tangled ball of yarn? One thought pulls on another, which snags a third, and soon you’re left with an impossibly tight knot of worry, what-ifs, and second-guessing. This is the classic "worry loop," a mental hamster wheel that overthinkers know all too well. It feels productive—you're thinking about the problem, after all—but it's a trap that drains your energy and keeps you stuck in a cycle of anxiety.
The truth is, you can't simply "stop" thinking. Telling an overthinker to "just relax" is like telling someone in a hurricane to "just hold on tight." It’s not helpful because it doesn’t give you a tool. What you need isn’t a stop button for your brain, but a set of practical, active techniques to gently untangle those mental knots. I call these "Cognitive-Unknotting" exercises—deliberate actions you can take to create space, gain perspective, and reclaim control from the chaos of a racing mind.
These aren't magic spells, but skills. Like any skill, they require practice. The goal isn't to eliminate all negative thoughts but to change your relationship with them. Instead of being swept away by the current of worry, you'll learn how to stand on the riverbank and simply observe. Ready to start unknotting? Let’s dive into 14 exercises that can help you break free.
1. Schedule a "Worry Window"
This might sound counterintuitive—why would you schedule time to worry? The power of this technique lies in containment. When you’re overthinking, your anxiety bleeds into every part of your day. By creating a designated "Worry Window," you teach your brain that there is a specific time and place for these thoughts, freeing up the rest of your day.
Set a timer for 10-15 minutes at the same time each day. During this window, you have full permission to worry, fret, and overthink as much as you want. Write down every concern that comes to mind. When the timer goes off, you stop. If a worry pops up outside of this window, acknowledge it and tell yourself, "Thanks for the reminder, I'll deal with you during my 4 PM Worry Window."
Tips for Success:
- Don't schedule it right before bed. You want to end the session and move on to a calming or engaging activity.
- Be disciplined. When the timer stops, physically close your notebook or stand up and walk away. This creates a clear boundary.
- You might find that by the time your window arrives, some of the worries you noted down earlier no longer seem as urgent or important.
2. Practice Cognitive Distancing (The "Fly on the Wall" Technique)
Overthinking happens when we are fused with our thoughts—we believe we are our thoughts. Cognitive distancing is the practice of creating a little space so you can observe your thoughts instead of being consumed by them. Imagine you are a fly on the wall, watching your own thoughts flicker across the screen of your mind. You are the observer, not the actor in the drama.
A simple way to do this is to rephrase your thoughts. Instead of thinking, "I'm going to fail this presentation," rephrase it as, "I'm having the thought that I'm going to fail this presentation." This small linguistic shift is powerful. It reminds you that a thought is just a mental event, not an undeniable fact. It’s a fleeting piece of data, not your entire reality.
Example:
- Fused thought: "I'm such an awkward person."
- Distanced thought: "I notice my mind is generating a story about me being awkward."
3. Label Your Thoughts
This is a step up from cognitive distancing. As thoughts arise, instead of getting caught up in their content, simply put a label on them. It’s like sorting mail. Is this thought a "judgment," a "worry," a "memory," a "plan," or a "prediction"?
This act of labeling interrupts the automatic spiral of overthinking. You shift from being a participant in the worry to being a neutral cataloger of your mental activity. You don't need to argue with the thought or push it away. Just label it—"Ah, that’s the ‘what-if-I-mess-up’ story again"—and let it be. This practice, often used in mindfulness, helps you see the patterns of your mind without getting ensnared by them.
4. Use the "Courtroom Method" for Evidence-Based Thinking
Anxious thoughts are terrible lawyers. They present wild accusations as facts without any supporting evidence. Your job is to become a fair and impartial judge. When a strong, negative thought takes hold (e.g., "Everyone at work thinks I'm incompetent"), put it on trial.
Grab a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle. On one side, write "Evidence For This Thought." On the other, "Evidence Against This Thought." Be brutally honest. What concrete, factual evidence do you have that everyone thinks you're incompetent? Now, what evidence do you have to the contrary? (e.g., "My boss praised my report last week," "A colleague asked for my help on a project," "I successfully completed my last three assignments.") Often, you'll find the evidence against the anxious thought is far more substantial.
5. Explore the Best-Case & Most-Likely Scenarios
Overthinkers are experts at catastrophizing—our minds jump straight to the absolute worst-case scenario. This exercise helps balance your perspective by forcing you to consider the other possibilities. When you catch yourself spiraling into a worst-case fantasy, pause and ask yourself three questions:
- What is the absolute worst thing that could happen? (Get it out.)
- What is the absolute best thing that could happen? (Force your brain to imagine a positive outcome.)
- What is the most realistic or likely thing to happen? (This is usually somewhere in the middle.)
Worry thrives on vague, terrifying possibilities. By defining the worst, best, and most-likely outcomes, you bring the situation back into the realm of reality. The worst-case is often survivable, the best-case is possible, and the most-likely is usually quite manageable.
6. The "So What?" Interrogation
This technique challenges the power of your anxious thoughts by following them to their logical—or often, illogical—conclusion. Start with your primary worry and repeatedly ask yourself, "So what?" or "And then what?" This helps you see if the catastrophic outcome you fear is actually as devastating as it feels.
Example:
- Worry: "I might make a mistake in my presentation."
- You: "So what?"
- Worry: "People will think I don't know what I'm doing."
- You: "And then what?"
- Worry: "My boss might be disappointed."
- You: "And if she is, then what?"
- Worry: "Well... I'll feel embarrassed for a bit, and then I'll probably just go back to my desk and continue my work. It won't be the end of the world."
Often, you’ll find that the chain of disaster ends not in ruin, but in a moment of minor discomfort that you can absolutely handle.
7. Conduct a Mindful Body Scan
Overthinking is a purely mental activity that disconnects you from your physical self. A body scan is a powerful grounding exercise that yanks your attention out of your head and into your body. It anchors you firmly in the present moment, where most anxious thoughts can't survive.
Find a quiet place to sit or lie down. Close your eyes and bring your attention to the tips of your toes. Notice any sensations—warmth, coolness, tingling, the pressure of your socks—without judgment. Slowly, deliberately, move your attention up through your feet, to your ankles, your calves, your knees, and so on, all the way to the top of your head. You're not trying to change anything, just observe. If your mind wanders (and it will), gently guide it back to the part of the body you're focusing on.
8. Use the 5-4-3-2-1 Grounding Method
This is a go-to emergency brake for a runaway mind. When you feel yourself getting swept up in a worry loop, stop and engage your senses to pull yourself back into the present environment. It's simple, discreet, and incredibly effective.
Look around and name:
- 5 things you can see (a pen, a crack in the ceiling, a dust bunny).
- 4 things you can feel (the texture of your jeans, the smooth surface of the table, the cool air on your skin).
- 3 things you can hear (the hum of a computer, a distant siren, your own breathing).
- 2 things you can smell (the coffee on your desk, the hand soap you used).
- 1 thing you can taste (your toothpaste, the lingering flavor of your lunch).
This exercise forces your brain to switch from abstract worry to concrete sensory processing, effectively halting the overthinking spiral.
9. Perform an "External Brain Dump"
Your mind has a limited amount of working memory, like the RAM on a computer. When it's clogged with looping worries, there's no space for anything else. A brain dump is the act of externalizing every single one of those thoughts onto paper.
Take a notebook and for 10-15 minutes, write down everything that's on your mind. Don't censor or organize it. Let it be a messy, chaotic stream of consciousness—worries, to-do list items, fears, random ideas. Getting them out of your head and onto the page creates immediate mental relief. It shows you that these thoughts are manageable pieces of data, not an overwhelming internal monster.
10. Identify One Actionable Step
Overthinking often stems from feeling overwhelmed by a problem that seems too big to solve. The antidote is not more thinking, but action—no matter how small. As I, Goh Ling Yong, often tell my clients, momentum is the enemy of rumination.
Look at the big, scary thing you're worried about. Now, ask yourself: "What is the absolute smallest first step I could take to move forward?" Not solve the whole problem, just the very next tiny action. If you're worried about a huge project, the next step might be "Open a new document and write the title." If you're anxious about a difficult conversation, it might be "Write down three bullet points I want to cover." Taking one small step shifts you from a passive state of worry into an active state of problem-solving.
11. Keep a "Why"-Focused Gratitude Journal
Standard gratitude journaling is great, but for overthinkers, we can supercharge it. Instead of just listing three things you're grateful for, write down why you are grateful for them. This detail is crucial.
It's easy to mindlessly list "my family, my health, my job." But when you have to explain the "why," your brain is forced to switch from its default negative scanning mode to a positive, appreciative one. For example: "I'm grateful for my morning coffee because the quiet ritual of making it calms my mind before the day starts." This practice actively retrains your brain to seek out and focus on the positive, building a mental muscle that counteracts the habit of overthinking.
12. Visualize "Thought Diffusion"
This is another powerful mindfulness technique borrowed from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Instead of fighting your thoughts, you let them go by visualizing them as temporary, separate objects.
Close your eyes and imagine yourself sitting by a gently flowing stream. As each thought or worry enters your mind, place it on a leaf and watch it float by and disappear down the river. Another popular visualization is to see your thoughts as clouds passing through the vast, open sky. Your mind is the sky—calm and constant—while the thoughts are just temporary weather patterns. The key is not to push the thoughts away, but to allow them to come and go without getting attached to them.
13. Set a "Decision Timer" for Small Choices
Do you ever spend 20 minutes agonizing over which brand of pasta to buy, or which email to answer first? This is analysis paralysis, a common symptom of overthinking. For these low-stakes decisions, give yourself a strict time limit.
Say to yourself, "I have 60 seconds to choose a restaurant for lunch." Set a timer on your phone. When it goes off, you must make a decision and stick with it. This trains you to become more comfortable with "good enough" decisions, breaking the cycle of seeking a perfect, non-existent answer. Over time, this builds confidence in your ability to make choices without endless rumination.
14. Engage in a "Flow State" Activity
A "flow state" is a state of being completely immersed and energized by an activity. It's when you're so absorbed in what you're doing that you lose track of time, and your inner critic goes silent. Overthinking cannot coexist with flow.
Identify activities that put you in this state. For some, it's running, painting, or playing a musical instrument. For others, it's coding, gardening, or tackling a complex puzzle. Schedule these activities into your week as non-negotiable appointments. Engaging in flow is not just a distraction; it’s a deep mental reset that starves the overthinking brain of the oxygen it needs to thrive. Many clients of Goh Ling Yong find that rediscovering a hobby is one of the most effective ways to manage chronic worry.
Your Mind is a Garden, Not a Battlefield
Breaking free from the worry loop isn't about winning a war against your thoughts. It's more like learning to be a better gardener of your mind. You can't stop the weeds (anxious thoughts) from ever appearing, but you can learn to recognize them, tend to the soil, and cultivate the plants you want to grow.
These 14 "Cognitive-Unknotting" exercises are your gardening tools. You don't have to use all of them at once. Pick one or two that resonate with you this week and practice them with curiosity, not judgment. Be patient with yourself. You are unlearning a lifelong mental habit, and that takes time.
Which of these exercises are you most excited to try? Do you have another technique that helps you untangle your thoughts? Share it in the comments below—your experience might be exactly what someone else needs to read today.
And if you feel like you need a guide to help you use these tools more effectively, consider booking a personalized coaching session. Together, we can create a strategy tailored to help you find more peace and clarity.
About the Author
Goh Ling Yong is a content creator and digital strategist sharing insights across various topics. Connect and follow for more content:
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