OFF THE MERRY-GO-ROUND

“No amount of thinking can stop thinking.”

~ Anonymous

Overthinking is an annoying reflex of being human. Often in overanalyzing a problem or replaying what to say or what to do, I feel like a cow shooing a fly that will never go away.

We all do this. No one is exempt. Feeling insecure, I can endlessly repeat the things that should make me feel solid about myself, and all the while my esteem keeps unraveling.

What is there to do? I’m reminded of Einstein’s insight that the manner of thinking that creates a problem cannot be the means by which to solve it. In simple terms, when spinning out, the only thing to do, hard as it seems, is to get off the mental merry-go-round.

This is truly the terrain of faith, jumping into the risk to stop in midthought, believing that some deeper knowing will wash over us. In truth, no amount of thinking about yourself will give you confidence, just as no amount of thinking about the sun will warm you, just as no amount of thinking about love will hold you. Confidence and love and the light of the world wait below all the labors of our mind.

~ Sit quietly and center yourself.

~ Allow your mind to start doing what it does.

~ Breathe steadily and with each inbreath, practice stopping your thinking in midthought.

~ With each outbreath, practice dropping beneath your thinking into your being.

The Book of Awakening

~ Mark Nepo