Methinks Thou Doth Introspect Too Much

I've never actually seen Hamlet in its entirety, but like most Shakespearean works, its themes and phrases have trickled into the collective subconscious and that's really the only reason why it appears in this post's title (albeit somewhat altered).

Now that the disclaimer is out of the way, let me try to outline what I'm getting at here.

Like many others, I've spent most of my life inside my own head. There are a lot of names for this, but I think the nicest one is "introspection". There are also a lot of ways to be "in your own head", which I believe we all do at some point or another, but I don't believe that we can all be accused of too much introspection. So, I'll be focusing specifically on the phenomenon that we call introspection (rather than other flavors of being in one's own head, such as narcissism or paranoia).

What are the symptoms of too much introspection?

These can include: believing you can think your way out of a situation or into a solution; a sense that each of your words or actions can have a significant impact on how others view/feel about you; feeling as if being misunderstood is a failure on your part and thus something that needs to be fixed by you; perceiving the words or actions of others as always being intentional; trying to make sense of something under the assumption that there is sense to be made of it.

These symptoms by no means cover everyone's experience with excessive introspection, but these are just a few from my own experience. Whatever your experience, if you've ever found yourself feeling net-negatively after ruminating on a thought or situation, perhaps you can spot a certain pattern in that process that sounds similar to one of the symptoms above?

Maybe I should've stated this first, but it's important to note that I am not in any way making an argument against introspection. Neither am I saying anyone is necessarily doing it "wrong" or even that this is a "right" way to introspect. Rather, I think there are just some of us who simply do it too often or too intensely (maybe now it's starting to sound like a humble brag, but ew! It's not). A helpful way to frame a definition of "too much introspection" might be this: remove any judgements from the introspection itself and focus purely on what you get out of it -- if you're unsure or it it's not something you want, then you're probably doing it too much. Ultimately, it's your call to make.

Do you like running through scenarios of how you could have done something differently? Does it make you feel more self-aware and better able to empathize with others? Does it compel you to address missteps you've taken or to make a change? If you answer "no" to all these questions, then you are likely suffering from excessive introspection*. But don't stop there! What do we do, now?

Personally, I haven't gotten that far yet. I think the first step is awareness of how our thoughts make us feel, and for that I like trying out different mindfulness techniques. Since this is an expression of my personal experience more than anything, I can't confidently give any general advice other than that, but I did find this article on the topic that could offer you some ideas on where to start that are much more research-backed than my own. 

Here's to getting out of our heads a bit more -- and maybe catching up on some classical theatre while we're at it?

*I am not qualified to say that, you should definitely get a real diagnosis from a real professional