I think a lot, it helps to stop thinking so much, but I seem to have a brain that thinks constantly at so many tangents that I cannot control it. Now I am not saying that this makes me intelligent or even a half wit, probably makes me slightly insane and inane. But it is annoying, but I do wonder what other people do to switch off. Don’t be afraid to say anything. 
Meditation, slow piano music, exercise, beer, cigarette, read a conspiracy theorists post,
Yeah I was expecting more than one post by now, but I guess they all don’t think too much.
Meditation is good though. Anyone tried wanking? I don’t know. 
I make some posts too. When you’re thinking too much try making posts, it’s meta.
Get out in the woods. Explore nature. Intense physical activity - sports, chopping woods, swimming. Yes, meditation - though I don’t meditate as a response to thinking too much, more as a preventative than a cure. Check on the underlying emotional stuff and express the shit out of that. Hang out with humans. Move away from humans. Hang out with animals. Deal with whatever I am thinking about too much in action. Clean stuff. Try to finish that damn song or story.
Yes music, spending time with people or friends helps, to me working helps more than anything because you have to focus your attention outside your self and outside your mind.
Thanks guys, perhaps wanking is not the only solution.
I hate this time of year, I have to be medicated to stop losing myself. And going out when it’s cold wet and windy is horrible, as horrible as talking to anyone beyond the shit you have to do.
I think I am so cranky and nervous perhaps because I should be in hibernation by now, if only I could.
Wanking, in my experience, just puts off the thinking, or replaces it with another kind of thinking -which can be rather unpleasant at least also. Once the wanking is over, the too much thinking is there again. I tried to list activities where I think less doing them and am apt to think less after having done them.
A little screaming goes a long way, I find.
Yeah I was of course joking, my medication makes me totally unable to wank so much, as it robs me of my lust. Antidepressants tend to do that.
I think at this time of year I should perhaps scream more and think less. That’d be the dream, but I am just so anxious, sometimes angry and a bear. I should be used to it by now, but I am not. I do try and relax, I don’t reaaally want to leave the house, and I can’t think straight anyway. It could be worse.
I took it as a joke with some truth in it. Sort of like, well, it wasn’t really a solution, but it sort of worked, ha, ha. One of my habits and often a bad one, taking humor as really being true in some relevent way. Yeah, well me angry and a bear quite a bit. Me anxious also quite a bit. Me scream sometimes. Me, have expressive tantrum. This can be done at home. Though all screaming should of course take into account the views of neighbors, liklihood of police being called, potential embarrassment, etc. Screaming into a pillow works, though it is vastly less satisfying. Wiffle ball bat hitting a mattress can make the bear feel like its message got across. Can all sound a little touchy feely, fluffy, not really accomplishing anything. But I find I really am much more clear. But it isn’t something to force. If it sounds like wow, that would be a release, then it might be a good idea.
The inside of domiciles and thinking too much are unfortunately a nice fit. Hard to find a catharis, outlet, break.
Thanks Moreno you have given me much to think about.
Yeah especially this time of year people tend to get more depressed or lonely. 
I find that peoples feelings to be correlated with the seasons, it’s interesting.
Spring everyone seems all happy and in love, out and about but around winter times people tend to get blue,down in the dumps, relationships end and stuff.
The nice thing about meditation, as a discipline, is that you might start out looking for a cure to “thinking too much”, and yes, most of us think too much. But meditation doesn’t really stop you from thinking. It helps you to modify your relationship to thinking. So I more or less agree with Moreno about physical activity, especially in nature/fresh air. Maybe not everyone does, but I thrive on that. Meditation isn’t a short-term solution. It’s a long-term discipline that can fundamentally change the way you relate to mind and body. It’s not for the faint of heart though. Most people try it out for a while and then essentially quit, until they have some kind of upheaval in life and then they briefly take it up again. But it’s an actual discipline. There are stages of practice. There are nuances…
The “funny” thing is that even when I´m doings that are supposed to take one’s mind out of things, I’m still thinking about philosophy.
This is going to sound really absurd but when I’m working out in the gym, I find myself philosophizing in between sets.
I think when I’m going to uni, I think when I’m returning home. I think in the gym, in class, almost everywhere and almost all day long.
The most effective thing I can do to switch off is read a book - a fictional story, I mean. I tend to become wholly consumed by the universe being built in side my head, so much so that I’ve been told once or twice that my reading habit is unhealthy. An aunt of mine first brought that to my attention, because she got me started on a series of books, each of which was approximately 300 pages long. Every day, I’d rush home from work (I was staying with her at the time) and pick up the next one and read it all the way through before I went to bed. She said I was using books to escape reality. I thought that was the point.
There are times when I can’t switch off, where no matter what I do the wheels won’t stop turning. It’s exhausting, and it usually drags me down into a pretty severe depression. Fortunately, though, that doesn’t happen to me very often anymore.
I’ve used meditation before, and got to the point of deep trance where to anyone else you like like you are not breathing. It’s very helpful. If I lived in the tropics I wouldn’t have this problem, but I have commitments, and who can afford a pied a tere in the tropics anyway, even in Brazil, Asia etc.
I read a lot of fantasy, it helps me to switch off, and alcohol once in a while is helpful to shut down some of that grey matter. Troubles is it becomes addictive at this time of year so you have to use a lot of control.
Yeah so does everyone, but there’s thinking and overthinking.
Well I think we both know that that’s a fucking lie. I’ve even seen you try to philosophize, and not manage to philosophize… let alone amidst exercise where either elevated heartrate makes sustained concentration difficult, or else the minute between sets makes it impossible.
Look, this is tough love, but I’m like the sensei in Karate Kid… it’s good for you.
This is MB, not Rant. Please behave appropriately.
To the OP: when I get caught up in busy thinking, I find socialising and playing go (or chess, poker, anything that you can lose yourself in focussing upon) are both good short-term breaks to get a breather. Long-term, I find regular intense exercise really helps, and if the thoughts are stressful or anxious, cutting out caffeine and alcohol as well as consciously stopping the train of thought as early as possible. That takes practice, and a fair bit of bloodymindedness.
Cutting out caffeine is a wise move. It stimulates the adrenals into thinking there is a real and present threat. If you immediately go out for some interval training, well, the artificially created panic may be held at bay. But if you are sitting at a desk or it hits your blood mid-commute, etc., that panic is likely to manifest as overthinking. This can seem positive at first, but overall the brain is really trying to solve a non-existent, immediate physical threat with mental verbal processes.