The German language fascinates me. There are some words that technically are multiple words but have been stitched together to become a singular word. Some of which can’t be translated in other languages without losing some of their meaning, and one needs multiple words to describe these. Take “Sehnsucht”, which translates to “a deep longing for something” (I don’t care what Google-translate or other websites say because ‘longing’/’craving’ doesn’t cut it. One does not have Sehnsucht for cheese, but one has Sehnsucht for a person, a magical place or even a magical mysterious experience). Alternatively, you could also consider “Schadenfreude”, which translates to ‘deriving pleasure out of someone else’s misfortune”. This is not a post about the German language. This post is closely related to a particular word which can somewhat be translated for what it is – “Hirngespinst”.
This word (which is also derived of two words), is often translated to “fantasy” and rightfully so, as it relates to having a crazy idea, or having illusions. It is made up of two words; Hirn = brain, Gespinst = spun yarn. When you think about it, it actually makes sense. We would spin some yarn in our brain to derive at some strange thinking. We keep weaving irrational thoughts together until we end up with a crazy idea and we like to then just run with it. Whilst this word probably is not used in the context of overthinking, not even by the Germans, I like to relate it to that. In some sense it is only one step away from spinning things together in our brain. Or is it?
Overthinking happens when we run our thoughts on auto-replay. It could possibly also be what prevents us from having a crazy idea because instead of weaving thoughts together in one way, we get overwhelmed by thoughts firing off in different parts in our brain. But maybe a Hirngespinst is the result of some overthinking and comes from wiring those thoughts together. Consider this: We find ourselves in a situation where we made a mistake or worry we have made a mistake. We keep replaying the situation over and over again and spend hours if not days thinking about it. We lay awake at night, and try to work out whether we did the right thing, or said the right thing. And it goes on and on.
Overthinking often leads to inaction. We are overwhelmed with the thoughts we have and having to remember what actually happened. The same could be said about worrying about a future project and we either don’t ever start because we cook up all sorts of thoughts about what may go wrong, or we try to plan every aspect of it and it gets all too hard and we abandon the idea or the event. The Project Managers aka Control freaks among us are all too familiar about thinking through when to do what, when to say what and keep other people in check, and even prepare for the off-chance that one of their friends who is coming over for dinner has forgotten to tell them that they are gluten free now. The best course of action is to abandon the party and the dinners altogether and uninvite our friends for a chill afternoon BBQ because we may forget the lactose-free cheese and it will be a disaster. It is best that we don’t go to the gym because we may hurt ourselves with the weights. The loop doesn’t discriminate between a future event or a past event, it just likes to keep on replay, day and night.
Overthinking can lead to creating a Hirngespinst. Spinning unhelpful thoughts together so we keep ourselves stuck and not pursue our dreams, re-living the past 500 times and worrying about things that most often will not happen. Whilst the actual meaning of Hirngespinst is to have a crazy idea or have illusions, overthinking may just be the same. We have ideas about what may or may not eventuate and we latch onto them, and accordingly we have misleading thoughts about ourselves, about others and about situations. As a result we also often tell ourselves that we are not good enough, we are not worthy of anything good, we didn’t handle something right, or we worry that our action in the future may create an unwelcome outcome. We keep ourselves stuck, the moment overthinking turns from simply thinking too much about something, into housing Hirngespinsts (plural).
Overthinking is the one thing that can be so detrimental in moving forward from a situation, or pursuing an opportunity. It needs to be cut out at its knees, and whilst you want to think some things through, some others can just be left alone and for situations to play out how they play out. We don’t need to control them, or think about how to control them, or even worry about them. We need to focus on what is happening here, right now, because we only have this given moment and overthinking takes us away from the present moment. Worrying about things that have a high likelihood of not occurring is wasted time. Even if the bad thought-out situation that we worry about arises, we have effectively lived the event twice (1x when we worry about it, 1x when the event occurs). What a waste of time. And the overthinkers who finally have let go of thoughts and not worry about anything, now worry about not worrying. And so it starts again.
A lot of overthinking also stems from our constant need to people please, which I will write about another time, but this post would not be complete without mentioning it.
You may wonder by now if a Hirngespinst is at all useful. Well, society would say it is bad, because by definition it means to be having an absurd idea, but there are situations when one should explore the Hirngespinst, that lives in their head. This is especially so when someone has a ‘crazy’, yet brilliant idea. If someone discourages someone from pursuing a dream or wanting to break away from the norm and do the uncommon in order to become the best version of themselves, and tells them that they have a Hirngespinst, don’t listen to them. Don’t listen to the naysayers and the people that want to keep you from your best self. They will hold you back at every opportunity. Instead, give the Hirngespinst some room to be explored. Spin those amazing, helpful and soulful thoughts together. Who knows, your Hirngespinst could be the best thing the world has ever seen.