People Are Losing Years Of Their Life To This One (Fixable) Mistake
You don't have to be weighed down by your mind.
bodnar.photo | Shutterstock It took me almost three decades of worrying, overthinking, and grinding to exert more control before I realized it. Behind me was a wake of struggle, frustration, and dissatisfaction. I’m not Mr. Perfect. But, by golly, do I have less of those days — much less. So what changed?
I learned to stop trying to think my way out of my anxieties and frustrations.
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Your mind is inconceivably powerful when you stop interfering with it.
First of all, what does this mean? Life is uncertain. We get doubtful. We feel resistance to life, often. When we do, we take this feeling as an indication that we’re supposed to do smart things. We think we’re supposed to worry to exert some control over the situation.
We assume we should apply some clever thinking we read in a mindset book. We fill our minds with more thinking, doubting, and controlling. What happens with this new onslaught of thought volume?
We are weighed down in the mind. Our performance decreases because how are we supposed to think when we’re stuffed full of thoughts? We’re grouchy at best.
Repetitive negative thinking (RNT) is the tendency to dwell on negative thoughts, often linked to heaviness and emotional distress. A 2020 study showed that this phenomenon is particularly prevalent in conditions like depression and anxiety, where individuals report a persistent sense of being burdened by their thoughts.
Great things happen when we ‘forget’ to think.
We’re in the moment. We feel the joy of stillness emerges in our souls. We forget to take it all so seriously. It’s funny because I’ve been struggling with back pain in the last few days, and the pain gets worse when I contort myself into weird positions in an attempt to fix it. The same happens with the mind.
Ever notice how you’re the most stressed when you’re thinking the most? Jake at work said something snidey and you couldn’t stop thinking about it on the train from work. You re-ran images of Jake’s smug face in your head.
You were your drive-in movie theater. You interfered with your thinking. And you didn’t have to. I know it stings. But it starts to cut deeper when you entertain all those thoughts you feel you need to hold on to.
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A review of research studies primarily focused on the concept of mindfulness and mental time travel, exploring how individuals can intentionally bring their attention back to the current moment by utilizing techniques like meditation or by mentally traveling from the future back to the present, often to reduce anxiety, improve focus, and enhancing decision-making abilities.
Everything changed for me when I returned to the present moment, even if a life situation bugged me.
I returned to the things that were in my control. I became ruthlessly intolerant to what I couldn’t do anything about. Let the mind do its thing, and it will splutter back into life.
It will deliver insight upon insight, every solution to a problem you ever needed, a buzz of continual energy, and a creative flow that will surprise the world.
Alex Mathers is a writer and coach who helps you build a money-making personal brand with your knowledge and skills while staying mentally resilient.