Thinking is good. Overthinking, not so good. Ruminating, pretty bad.

Sometimes people attached to a certain kind of spirituality (or pseudo-spirituality) say that thinking should be avoided, that somehow we should live in an intuitive la-la land where actions occur spontaneously and naturally, no thinking required.

Aside from being totally unrealistic, I’ve wondered how it is that these people express their distaste of thinking in words that sure seem like thoughts. After all, what is saying or writing “thinking should be avoided” but an expressed thought, thinking should be avoided.

Mindfulness practice, in my experience, doesn’t view thinking as a problem any more than emotions are a problem.

Both are part of our interior landscape. Thoughts and emotions should be noticed in the same way we notice entities in an exterior landscape. Ah, there’s a forested mountain with a river running past it. Ah, I’m feeling kind of down today, probably because I can’t stop thinking about the problem I’m having at work.

But anything taken to extreme can become a problem. Overeating. Overexercising. Overthinking. Of course, what’s problematic for one person may be another person’s source of pleasure.

In my health planning/policy analysis days, I worked with a brilliant psychiatrist, Ralph Crawshaw, on bioethics issues. I recall a time when we were driving somewhere and I observed that my meditation practice at the time encouraged that a mantra be recited as much as possible to cut down on those “monkey mind” thoughts.

Dr. Crawshaw replied that he enjoys thinking from the time he wakes up on the morning until he falls asleep at night. That worked for him. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a prolific writer of journal articles, and seemingly happy with his life.

I’m no longer into mantra meditation. But I don’t enjoy as many thoughts rummaging through my mind as Dr. Crawshaw did. So my attitude is what I expressed in the title of this blog post: Thinking is good. Overthinking, not so good. Ruminating, pretty bad.

Yesterday the Washington Post had a story, “Can’t stop overthinking? Here’s what experts say actually helps.” That’s a gift link, so everybody should be able to read the story. I was mainly interested in the six strategies for dealing with overthinking, which for me is not quite as serious as ruminating — though actually there may not be much difference between them.

All of the strategies make sense to me, because I’ve tried them and found that they help me to go on an unpleasant thought diet. Well, except for #4. I just can’t picture myself scheduling some of my worries for later. They’re either too intrusive to be placed in a Later List, or too mild to not attend to them right now.

1. Confront your thoughts instead of resisting them.

One of the top mistakes people make is trying to force their brains to just…stop. That can look like telling yourself not to think about something at all, arguing with your thoughts to prove them wrong or engaging in avoidance behaviors to keep the chatter at bay. While understandable, resisting anxious thoughts can backfire. “You’re sending the message to your brain that your thoughts are actually dangerous,” McAdam said, which makes it pay more attention.

Instead, McAdam said, the goal is to observe more than engage. That might be as simple as labeling what’s going on (“these are worry thoughts”) or acknowledging what your brain is doing (“thanks for flagging potential danger”).

2. Engage in some mental time travel.

“When we experience chatter, we tend to focus really narrowly on the problem,” Kross said. “A natural antidote to this tunnel vision is to broaden our perspective and look at the bigger picture.” He recommended something he calls “mental time travel.” Ask yourself how you’ll feel about a situation in a week, a month or a year. Research shows this exercise can remind you that what you’re dealing with is temporary and help dial down the emotional intensity. You can also rewind — think about experiences you have already survived to prove to yourself that you can get through this one, too.

3. Address yourself in the second person.

Talking to yourself from an outside perspective (using “you” instead of “I”) is another way to take a step back, Kross said. This shift, called self-distancing, has been shown to help people think more objectively about stressful situations. Not to mention, it taps into the compassion we’re typically better at showing when speaking to others rather than to ourselves.

4. Schedule some of your worries for later.

Given how much there is to think about — from personal stressors to the constant drip of bad news — it makes sense that your brain is swirling with concerns. To lessen the mental burden, McAdam recommended a research-backed practice known as worry postponement. In practice, that means scheduling dedicated time to worry, ruminate or process, ideally in writing or out loud. Whenever worries or anxieties pop up outside that window, gently remind yourself, “Not now — we’ll come back to this later.”

Your brain might resist at first, but with repetition, it’ll learn to contain concerns within the boundaries you set. Think of it like potty-training a puppy, McAdam said — your goal might be to stop it from peeing on the carpet, but in practice, you have to teach it when and where to go instead.

5. Change up your environment.

When people feel uncertain or powerless, they do what they can to create a sense of control, a phenomenon known as compensatory control, Kross said. For some, overthinking serves that function, whether you’re trying to prepare for the worst, learn from past mistakes or simply pay attention because it feels like all you can do.

To evoke the same sense of control without getting pulled into a thought spiral, Kross recommended turning to your environment instead. Simple, concrete actions such as tidying your space, organizing your desk or going for a walk can restore a feeling of agency and quiet mental noise. Plus, a large body of research touts the power of nature for anxious minds. “Your attention naturally drifts away from inner chatter when you’re around beautiful, awe-inspiring things,” Kross said.

6. Just do something.

When responding to immediate threats, the course of action is often pretty clear: Run from the fire, slam on the brakes, fight or flight. But when you kick off a stress response by overthinking, your body treats real and perceived threats similarly, and it’s not always obvious where to put that energy.

When possible, channel that activation into some form of action, even if it’s small, McAdam said. Research options, call your senator, make a pro and con list, soothe physical symptoms, talk it out with a friend. Dig into what’s at the heart of your anxious thoughts and ask yourself what might help you get out of your head.