Overthinking

I sometimes feel so jealous of people who don’t overthink.

How simpler everyday life is for you guys.

I wish I could get one day to be in your shoes.

I have been overthinking since my inception.

Every single thing, action, decision.

It’s like one of those decision trees you see in an if-else conditional branch in coding, on steroids.

Everything becomes a ‘What if?’

It’s sometimes tiring, and exhausting.

But you can’t help it.

Some of us are just wired that way.

Back in school, I was at the peak of my overthinking prowess.

Every little thing was a profound thought in my head.

‘What subject would I study, what would happen if I didn’t study enough, what if I took another subject’ etc.

And with time, it only got worse.

Anxiety is when you are in constant worry.

Whether things would go right, and whether things would go wrong.

If everything went well, you would think ‘Well things are moving too smoothly, there’s bound for something bad to happen now.’

If everything wasn’t, = peak anxiety.

Lose-Lose. 🤷🏽

Where do you see an escape?

All you are surrounded by is thoughts, thoughts, and more thoughts.

You feel like the walls are closing in.

Like there’s no space to breathe.

Everything is going wrong, AT THE SAME TIME.

You don’t see an exit.

You wish it would all go away.

This is where I realized something.

You don’t defeat some demons, you learn to live with them.

I’m sure we’ve all experienced this.

The more you try not to think, the more you do.

It’s human nature.

I realized that the more I tried to calm my mind down when I was conscious about my anxiety, the more agitated I would become.

Instead, I learned to co-exist with my demons.

Acceptance is the first step.

First, accept the fact that till the end of your life, this is always gonna be a part of you.

There’s nothing you can do to change that.

The more you try to fight it, the bigger the enemy becomes. You give it power.

Learn to accept. Come to peace with it.

Then, learn to use it for good.

You see, everything in life is perspective believe it or not.

Everything.

The way you perceive things is what increases it’s value in your eyes.

Good and bad, right and wrong.

Boiling things down, it’s all perspective.

Likewise, overthinking is always seen as something bad and harmful.

It mentally distracts and drains you of all your energy.

But ONLY IF YOU LET IT.

Focus on things you love instead of thinking about whether you wore the right shirt for that meeting.

Say you are building a PC.

Channel your thoughts into that, helping you think of every small detail and component.

You wouldn’t miss a thing.

This way, you become laser-focused and driven.

Channel that energy.

Use it on something useful.

This is how you overthink.

Obsess over the fine print.

You don’t beat it, you live with it.

And just like that, you have turned one of your weaknesses into your greatest weapon.

A weapon that gives you a powerful advantage over everyone around you.

There was this clip on YouTube, and it’s one of my favorites, if not my favorite clip ever, cause it hits so close to home.

This is from one of Jordan Peterson’s public speeches where an audience member asks him a question.

(Terrific question, even more terrific answer btw)

The only way out is through.

Keep moving. If you’re going through hell, why would you stop?

Remember, the only way out…is through.

More life to you, have a good week. 🧿