Curing Overthinking Through Mindfulness

Don’t create another problems that don’t event exist in the first place.

So, your mind try to wandering about all the bad stuff that ever happen in your life.
All the awkwardness that ever occurred ?
The rejection from your crush ?
The breakups from your soulmate ?
The car that got stolen ?
The passing of the beloved one ?

Or maybe your brain tries to imagining the future with all the useless worrying ?
About the project’s deadline that due tomorrow ?
The meeting with the manager about your team ?
The fate of your single life after a breakups ?
The rendezvous with your father-in-law tomorrow?

That might be the sign of overly thinking.
And the degree of it depends on how many question in your brain and how devastating the impact of it.

Some will cause insomnia, missing out the moment, unhappiness, nonsense expectation that will eventually lead to depression or worse, suicidal.

Unfortunately, our brains do crave that way of thinking. or we could say that “addicted”.
Whenever we are trying to sleep, spacing out, lunch break, or most of the unproductive times.

After all, we are not truly living if we keep wandering through all these unnecessary thought. Just like a lifeless ghost.

And if we are one of the person who often trapped to wandering in this spiral of endless torturing and negativity, then it might be wise to re-program about how to live in the present through the mindfulness implementation in how we tweak our brain to be more aware in the current moment.

What is Mindfulness ?

Mindfulness means that we are focusing our energy in present by managing our minds to be aware with current time and current condition.
By living in the present, All the thought from the past and future won’t hurt you.
Experience, projection, expectation, worries are no more than a thought. and they are harmless, as long as we don’t lost in its.
You might find that the living in mindfulness is plain, simple, yet full of peace rather than the overly thinking way that drives us insane with all unnecessary stuff.

And here is a several way to start living a mindful life :

1. Mindful meditation

Ah meditation, one of the monk activity that will bore us to death.
Do we can get to Nirvana when we found an enlightenment along the way ?

That’s the first thing that came up to my mind when my psychologist told me about it.
Life itself is not as Grande as it may seem.
We mostly spend our time doing works, commute, chores, and sleep.
But our minds crave the adventurous, joyous and magnificent story that ever happen or never ever happen in our life.
Reminiscing all the past moment like the first kiss, the first rank in class or the hardship that we endure until we got promoted.
Imagining all the possible future that might happen through all the unforgettable experience.
And processed through a wasteful overthink ,
Resulting of unhappiness because the unnecessary expectation with the present life.

Through the mindful meditation and breathing,
We will try to live in the present. Enjoying every breath in every sitting.
Not by controlling our thought, but more likely by observing without lost in it.
Letting it come and go, as a thought. No more and no less.

• Set a timer around 10–20 minutes and put it where you can’t see it
• Sit down into a comfortable position with your spine straight
• Eyes closed
• Slowly emptying your lungs in a few breaths and allow them to fill naturally. Do it 2–3 times before allow your breath to proceed naturally
• Pay attention to the physical sensation involved in the breathing such as expanding of the chest, rise and fall of the shoulders, the air that come and go through the breathing.
• Pay attention to all of your sense. What you hear, smell, taste and feel.
• Pay attention to your body. The body heat, cold, tension.
• Allow all the sensation to float into your awareness without judgement
• Watch for any thought being produced by the mind. Allow each one of them to come and go in its own, without lost in it. There is no need to try get rid of or change those thoughts. Just observe them and back noticing all the point above without any judgement.
• You will find that at first that you will often lost in your thought. But it’s okay. Just learn to focus back on the present. noticing all the sensation above and be aware about it.
• Do this as a daily routine before going to sleep or after waking up

Through the practice of mindful meditation and breathing, you will train your mind to enjoy all the little things that currently happen in the present instead of lost in thought of negativity.

2. Mindful way of thinking

Oh great another break up, Let my mind wander through all the unforgettable memories with her, all the unachieved future moment with her, and also don’t forget to remind me how miserable and lonely I am in every day without her.

We can’t avoid all the tragedy that will happen or already happen in our lives.
Breakups, the losing of beloved ones, company got bankrupt, things got stolen.
But what we can do is being as acceptance as much as we can.
No matter how much we complain or being angry or depressed won’t make things going back the way it used to be.

Let me give you an example.
You already in perfect relationship for as much as 4 years. You already planned for marriage in the next two years. The relationship going well, until one day your partner decided to end it.
This might end up with 2 different scenarios :

• You keep complaining to your ex about things could be much more better, you keep living in a state of angry and depressed. You feel sorry for yourself because you think that it is better to have a partner. Every day is feel like a burden that you can’t even get up from your bed. The thought of loneliness and all the past memory keep haunting you everyday. Always remembering you how miserable you are without your partner.
• You live in a state of mindfulness, anchored to the present moment. Scary thought of living a solitary life doesn’t bother you. Even when they do, you refuse to get lost in them. You keep observing those pieces of mind as no more than a thought, then you keep getting back to the present. Enjoying all the present moment, leaving you experience your life to the fullest instead of wishing for something different to come along. You keep thinking that life is so rich and full and too short for regretting all the past.

So, which way would you prefer ? Struggle or acceptance ?

Unconditional happiness means you are happy with what you have. No need to add or change anything, that you can be happy as you are right now. In other words, mindfulness, by living in the present and the acceptance is in the core of mindfulness itself.

3. Keeping it as an endless journey

It’s never easy to form a habit. For some people might take a month, years or even a decade. But the first step you need to take, is to experience it

You might find that it’s hard to spend some times to meditate 10 minutes a day. You keep losing in your thought whether on meditation or in real life. Your mind is too noisy. There is a lots of distraction.
But forming a habit is a journey. It is not something that can be made throughout the night.

• Try to be discipline. If you can binge watching or browsing in an hour, 10 minutes should be easy as a daily ritual.
• It’s okay to often lost in thought again. Don’t be discouraged. All you need to do is treat it as a thought that come and go and back to the present again.
• If your mind is too noisy, it might be challenging but you can still be mindful. Just like an unfit person in exercise. Eventually, if you can maintain practice over time, your mind will be settled on its own.
• Try to take a distraction as a form of challenge. Notice how your mind reacts to the neighbourhood dog, or the noisy traffic. Treat it as a thought and back your focus to the present.
• Don’t worry about the result. Just practice today without any expectation of getting something from it. Our mind always tries to compare, evaluate and analyze the process. Making us keep losing int the thought of the process and expecting the result itself. Instead, just do it without expecting anything.
• Being acceptance doesn’t mean that you surrender and not doing anything. You still struggle to things that you could change instead of resist the things that already happen.

After living more than 10 years having a depression that almost lead to suicidal tendencies caused by overly thinking mind,

I decided to put a mindfulness into my way of life.
And I see how simple life it is, plain, bland but yet peaceful.

How scary it is if we keep being controlled by our own thought.
How easy it is to be happy without the needs to struggle or resist the condition.
How the calmness could be found in single mindful breath at the time.

Still even after all this time, I do sometimes keep lost in my negative thought.
But more importantly, to get back on your mind even if you already lost multiple times.

Mindfulness is a journey without an end and without expecting anything.
Yet walking through its path, it’s much more fun than having to be tortured with our own mind.

https://www.amazon.com/Mindfulness-Plain-Simple-Oli-Doyle/dp/1409156761