How to stop “overthinking” with Jon Acuff
Pardon the Mess with Scarlet Hiltibidal - Christian Motherhood, Biblical Parenting, Raising Christian Kids
Scarlet Hiltibidal and Christian Parenting
4.9 • 850 Ratings
🗓️ 6 March 2025
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Do you spend time overthinking? I sure do, but can honestly say it’s gotten way better over the years. This episode is dedicated to my small group of senior girls. They were telling me that “overthinking” is taking them down for so many days. That conversation had me pondering about the topic and I wanted to help them with this struggle. So, I got Jon Acuff back on the podcast to help me wrestle through it.
Jon Acuff writes the most relatable books with common struggles in our daily lives. He’s an entrepreneur, author, speaker, podcaster, husband and dad of 2 college girls. He’s also hilarious and always has me laughing every time we connect.
My favorite part is how he gives us a very practical way to approach overthinking. Instead of letting this steal our time, creativity and productivity - what if we were deliberate with what we think about? Could we use that same time and energy to fight for positive thoughts over negative thoughts?
He offered a code for his upcoming event
In this episode, we chat about:
- How overthinking affects almost everyone
- How to switch overthinking to something positive
- How to shorten the pity parties in our minds
Enjoy!
Courtney
(03:08) The College Experience and Loneliness Epidemic
(05:59) Overthinking: A Common Human Experience
(08:55) The Dangers of Overthinking
(11:56) Soundtracks: Shifting Negative Thoughts
(15:07) Faith and Practicality in Overthinking
(18:09) Navigating Teenage Emotions and Relationships
(20:05) Understanding Teenagers: Insights from Parenting
(22:10) Navigating the Empty Nest: Emotions and Realities
(24:12) The Challenges of Parenting Adult Children
(28:40) Creating a Remarkable Life: Upcoming Event Insights
Connect with Pardon The Mess:
Get your 2024-2025 prayer journal, A Life of Faith
Resources from today’s show:
Connect with Jon Acuff
Remarkable You - upcoming event with Jon Acuff (code: PODCAST50)
Soundtracks book
Your New Playlist book for teens
How Teens Win book for teens
Pardon The Mess is a part of the Christian Parenting Podcast Network. For more information visit www.ChristianParenting.org
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Transcript
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| 1:10.0 | Music Hey friends, welcome to pardon the mess. I'm your host, Courtney Defeo, and we have John Acuff back on Pardon the Mess today. |
| 1:23.9 | I just have loved him for so many years. He's witty. He's relatable. I actually talk about the |
| 1:29.5 | time I stalked him in the airport and went up was like, hi, I've followed you for so many years. |
| 1:34.1 | But he's a dad. He's got two girls. He is a brilliant entrepreneur and has written 10 bucks, |
| 1:39.4 | but he's just so relatable. I can't say that enough. And so when I was thinking about this topic, it all started |
| 1:44.7 | with a moment with my small group girls. I've got 12th grade girls that I've been, their small group |
| 1:49.9 | leaders since they were freshmen, and they were talking about overthinking and asking everyone |
| 1:54.0 | to pray for them, just different girls about the negative thoughts spiraling through their head. |
| 1:58.6 | And I didn't have a whole lot of great things to say about it because I'm like, I do the same thing. And I talk about in this episode how I am better |
| 2:04.6 | at it. There's, I don't overthink as much as I did 10 years ago or 20 years ago. And as John says, |
... |
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