Overthinking is the biggest cause of unhappiness.
Overthinking is the biggest cause of unhappiness.
How many times have you allowed something to stew inside of you? Whether it is something you or someone else said or did, or whether it is something you are considering saying or doing, or something you think someone else is going to say or do, the impetus for mindfuck is continuously present in our lives.
There are countless ways that this may come to pass in our existence. Some are more readily plausible, and others so farfetched as to give us a smile when we reflect after the fact and contemplate that we had been worrying about them. That is the nature of the stimuli that love to take us on journeys we do not wish to embark upon.
When a specific stimuli is readily present, causing most of our other thoughts to quiver in the shadows, giving way to this looming beast, which presumes to cannibalize our existence, we are presented with an extreme opportunity to grow, if we are able to find our pathway from the mindfuck to a pasture of tranquility and acceptance.
For me, the solution came from reading Eckhart Tolle and The Power of Now. Learning to stay in the present was the solution I so desperately needed. Later, in my studies, it was obvious to me that Eckhart was parroting Buddha and both concur that the only thing that is real is the present and the past and future are nonexistent. To battle this disorder, I put the word, “NOW,” on my computer monitor to stare me in the face at times when my overzealous mind was raging against my tranquility. When things were going into overdrive, my overanxious being needed a simple reminder to come back to the present and explore what I was so oppressed by at that precise moment.
If we are going for an exam, or waiting for test results, or hoping a loved one will say one thing or fearing that they might say another, we are all setting ourselves up for such a moment of overthinking. Our ambitious imaginations work double time to project our fears, hopes, expectations and disappointments long before they have any cause to be processing such a thought, because the actual answers have yet to make themselves known.
Learning to escape this oppressive mindset is a skill that takes practice. I believe the first step is the recognition that living with the mental paralysis of trying to make this condition dissipate is so nonproductive to our lives, that we must really see that we are wasting valuable time on conjecture and what point could possibly be accomplished in that behavior?
Perhaps, the true solution is to recognize that life is going to deliver highlights and disappointments. They are part of the life experience. Some come out of nowhere, and others are forecasting their presence through telltale signs that should be making an impression upon us, early enough that we might either avert them, or recognize that we are attracting those outcomes, and work more proactively to ensure that they do not occur.
Things are most certainly not going to all resolve in our favor. That is just a simple fact of life.
The bigger solution is to find your enjoyment in every day, without any expectation that any one day will be more positive than the next. If you can find your satisfaction in the smaller details, appreciate the things that go by without notice and acknowledge them (like how great that first sip of coffee is in the morning, or the look your pet gives you when you wake up), you may discover your life is becoming infinitely more rich and rewarding than to spend most of it in fear of the future, or replaying a scene from the past that you cannot undo.
We are truly the masters of our own destiny. We control our opportunities and distribute our mental wealth in the areas we deem most important. These are the key ingredients to finding our personal happiness. Grow to understand these simple details, and your life will improve substantially.
Happy Wednesday!
Leave a Comment