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Always Living in Your Head? How to Break Out

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yesterday

Maybe you’re one of those people who live in their heads all the time. You feel relief over jumping life's latest hurdle, but then obsess about what’s next up on your to-do list. Or, you often feel some form of performance pressure in social situations—always thinking about how you need to be in this situation, stepping into character, and then ruminating about how to be in the next one. It’s easy for you to slip into self-criticism, perhaps even perfectionism, and you may be overly focused on routines, looking around corners, and dwelling on future uncertainties.

But while all this may be going on in your head, that doesn’t mean that you're emotionally flat or a contemporary version of Star Trek's logical Mr. Spock. You can “enjoy” a date night with your partner, or you feel “gratified” by receiving an unexpected award at work. Yet all too often, it's muted by your ever-working, analyzing head.

And you're also missing out on important decision-making information. We now know that your gut is a source of serotonin, an essential brain chemical affecting mood, but researchers have been going deeper, studying the role of your gut in making decisions. In recent studies, they've linked gut information to the unconscious and

© Psychology Today