When Thinking Gets Too Tight: The Physiology of Overthinking

Flashlight vs. Floodlight Awareness

We’ve all heard it:
“You’re overthinking.”
“You’re making this harder than it needs to be.”

But what are we really saying when we say that?

It’s not that thinking is wrong. Thinking helps us make sense of experience. What’s actually happening is that our attention has narrowed; we’ve started to flashlight.

Flashlight Thinking

Imagine attention as a small beam of light. When it focuses tightly on one detail, the rest of the field goes dim.

This kind of precision has value—it helps us analyze, correct, refine. But when we stay there too long, the nervous system begins to help by holding that focus. Muscles brace, breath shallows, eyes fix.

Thinking turns into effort because our body has joined the strain.

Floodlight Awareness

When someone says, “Don’t overthink it,” what they often mean is, “Widen your attention.”

Floodlight awareness is more global and inclusive. It lets the nervous system integrate movement, breath, balance, and relationship. In music, dance, or public speaking, this wider perspective allows multiple systems to collaborate rather than compete.

Over-control happens when we isolate one element of a complex process. Widening awareness invites the whole system—body, space, and connection—to guide the detail, not the other way around.

Thinking Is Relational

It can help to say “thinking belongs in the body,” but the fuller truth is that thinking belongs in relationship.

From an interpersonal neurobiology perspective, the mind is a process that arises within and between people—it’s relational, embodied, and emergent.

When attention narrows, we don’t just tighten internally; we also reduce our connection with the world. Our body stops sensing its environment, and our thinking loses the feedback that keeps it adaptive.

When awareness widens, the field opens again. The body, environment, and relationships begin to think with us. That’s the ground of creative flow.

Releasing the Grip

If you notice yourself thinking “too hard,” pause—not to stop thinking, but to soften how you’re attending.

Try letting your attention include more of what’s already here:

• The support of your feet.

• The natural rhythm of breath.

• The soft edges of your visual field.

• The sound and temperature of the room.

As the field widens, the system self-organizes. Effort distributes. Thinking regains movement and responsiveness.

For Musicians

In the practice room, flashlight thinking might show up as analyzing one note until the phrase collapses. In rehearsal, it might feel like controlling breath so tightly that tone loses resonance.

Floodlight awareness invites the full network—instrument, body, air, and sound—to participate. Focus remains, but it breathes again.

The Shift

The next time someone says, “You’re overthinking it,” try hearing:
“Your attention has narrowed. Widen it, and let connection return.”

Ease comes not from doing less, but from including more.
When awareness widens, the mind, the body, and the world begin to think together.